


With The Force

by LadyIlica



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Romance, Second Chances
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:22:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 28,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28419819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyIlica/pseuds/LadyIlica
Summary: Jyn & Cassian are given another chance at life by the mysterious Force that flows through the galaxy. They must fulfill their final purpose and help save the galaxy yet again--even if they aren't quite sure what they are looking for but are surprised to find that their connection goes beyond the events of Rogue One. Cassian and Jyn will learn about each other's past and how to lean on one another as they try to figure out what the Force wants from them... and they run into a few familiar faces along the way!
Relationships: Cassian Andor & Jyn Erso, Cassian Andor/Jyn Erso
Comments: 6
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1

**1**

**re·a·wak·en**

_emerge or cause to emerge again; awaken again._

As fire lit up the horizon and the ocean began to curl up into flames, Jyn Erso squeezed Cassian harder as it neared ever closer to them. It was the end, she knew it, she just never thought she’d have so much time to think about it before it happened. In this moment she was noticing all of the little things, like the blue sky above her darkening into a burnt orange color or the way that Cassian smelled like smoke and sweat. 

They’d managed to get the plans off the planet and to the Alliance, but in the process they’d lost so much. Her father, Baze, Bodhi and even Chirrut. She hadn’t seen them die but she could almost feel it instinctively. 

Jyn knew that she and Cassian were next, she could see the fire of the blast only about fifty feet away. K2 would have piped up at this point to tell them that their chances of survival were at exactly zero percent and she would have had to agree. 

“Close your eyes.” Cassian whispered into her ear, he’d known she was fixated on the oncoming explosion. 

“I can’t.” Jyn’s voice came out into a sob, the adrenaline from their initial victory was fast leaving her body only to be replaced with a breathtaking fear. 

Cassian pulled away “Then look at me.” he forced her eyes to his. They were steady and not belying the fear that he was sure to be feeling in that moment. 

She looked at every line in his face and every bruise committing it to memory, if there was an afterlife she didn’t want to forget his face. It represented everything that they had done over the past few days and the people that they’d helped. 

“It was worth it.” She whispered and it was almost drowned out by the far off rumble and Cassian had to lean in to hear her. 

“What was?” 

“Everything. Even though we’re about to die and we’ve lost everything.” She said it with such conviction that Cassian smiled wryly down at her. 

“Thats a lot coming from the girl who didn’t have any hope just a few days ago.” 

“A lot can change in a few days.” Jyn gave him a watery smile, and he leaned down and pressed his forehead to hers. 

“Don’t be afraid Jyn.” The world around them began to crumble and shake and Cassian knew what he was going to say next. The one thing that would make this all okay. “I am one with the force.” 

Jyn smiled and watched his eyes close and she closed her own, “And the force is with m--” Then the world went white and a fierce ringing filled her ears as everything disappeared.

* * *

The afterlife smelled quite frankly a little bit mildewy. She hadn’t really been expecting anything, but this was too much. 

“Jyn.” A familiar voice murmured and relief filled her body, at least she wasn’t alone even if it smelled terrible. 

She opened her eyes and found she was looking up at a damp rocky ceiling. 

“Wh--?” she gasped, her eyes moving over to the man kneeling next to her. Cassian’s warm brown eyes looked into her own as he grinned down at her. 

“How?” She asked sitting up and finding that she’d been laying on a reed thatch mat. They were in some kind of cave which would be completely cold and damp if it were not for the large fire that blazed in the middle of it, warming them. What looked like vegetables were strung up on the walls and crates full of supplied were next to those. 

“Mysterious ways the force does work, Jyn Erso.” A voice echoed through the cave and a small cloaked figure entered. The hood fell away and a little green man revealed himself, Jyn had never seen anything like him before and she’d lived in some of the most diverse places in the galaxy. 

“Who are you?” She asked, immediately distrustful, a quick glance at Cassian showed her how unfounded her suspicion was. His posture was completely relaxed and he smiled openly at the man. 

“Jyn this is Master Yoda. He has been taking care of us.” 

“But how did we survive? That planet exploded I could feel it.” 

Cassian opened his mouth to speak but ended up shrugging “I do not know.” 

“Well how long was I out for?” 

“I woke up two days ago and Master Yoda says that we had been out for two weeks before that.” 

“Panic not Jyn Erso.” Master Yoda said calmly as he poked the fire with a stick and added another log. “All will be revealed. Eventually. Now, eat you must. Long journey ahead.” 

“Journey?” She asked as a bowl of soup was pushed into her hands, the smell was not the best but her stomach growled viciously and she soon tucked in not caring about the overly salty taste or odd texture. 

“Master Yoda says we must leave tonight. He is expecting someone important and says we will be too much of a distraction.” 

“Mm.” Jyn muttered around her soup. Something wasn’t right about all of this, something about them felt off. Without thinking she reached into her shirt to find the kyber crystal that her mother had given her before she had died. To her surprise the crystal began to flow faintly. 

“How are you doing that?” Cassian asked in wonder as he reached out to touch it and it brightened. 

“I don’t know it’s never done this before.” They looked towards Master Yoda who smiled mysteriously. 

“What actually happened on Scarif? We’re actually dead aren’t we?” Jyn asked her voice cracking with panic as she began to run her hands down her body as if they would go right through it.

“Dead you are not Jyn Erso. A purpose you still have to fulfill.” Came his sagely reply.

“This has to be some sort of mistake.” Cassian said just as perplexed as Jyn. 

“Mistakes the Force does not make. Now, go you must. Eventually all will be revealed.” Master Yoda gestured to two large packs that sat next to the entrance to the cave. 

Jyn wanted to ask more but Cassian just shook his head at her, his expression telling her silently that the green man would not answer anymore of their questions. 

Heaving her pack onto her back she turned towards Cassian who gave her and encouraging nod, before exiting the cave and into the sunlight.


	2. Chapter 2

**2**

**bit·ter·sweet**

_ both pleasant and painful or regretful. _

Sunlight warmed Jyn’s face as they walked through the forest, it fought to get through the thick greenery all around them and though it came in patches, Jyn was grateful for it. She’d never thought she’d be able to take joy in something so simple ever again. 

“Jyn.” Cassian called from about fifty paces ahead of her, she’d gotten distracted again. 

She hurried to catch up with him and smiled sheepishly, “Where are we going?” she asked as the forest began to turn swampy and misty. 

“Master Yoda told me to head North and that we would eventually find what we are looking for.” 

“What is it exactly that we are searching for?” 

“I do not know. But I also do not know what else to do.” Cassian sounded just as lost as she felt. 

“Well,” she said after a beat “It’s not everyday one comes back from the dead.” 

“How do you know that we actually died?” Cassian pulled a vine out of the way and allowed her to enter ahead of him. 

“I could feel the fire licking my back before everything went black. My back is fine now.” She sounded so reasonable that she almost believed herself, though there was no way to be sure. 

Cassian didn’t say anything and instead they kept on walking until the patches of sunlight faded. Eventually they found a relatively dry spot in the swamp. 

“We will set up camp here tonight.” Cassian said as he knelt down to collect some sticks to start a fire, Jyn helped as best as she could but her body felt like lead and exhaustion began to overtake her even though she’d only woken up a few hours ago. 

Cassian took one look at her and began to place intricate looking strings around the camp, staking them above the ground with extra sticks. 

“What are you doing?” Jyn asked, yawning. 

“You are in no shape to take any sort of watch and neither am I. These will make noise should anyone try to enter the camp.” He replied as he finished tying off the last string. 

“Do you think someone will?” 

“No, I haven’t seen anything more than small rodents since we got here. But it is better to be safe than sorry, now get some sleep.” 

They laid out their bedrolls on either side of the fire and Jyn eagerly took off her boots and crawled into hers, falling asleep almost instantly. 

_ “Jyn.” her father’s voice murmured as she hovered over his bloody face “My stardust.” Then he died. Jyn sobbed as she was forcibly pulled away by Cassian.  _

_ Then the scene changed and she was standing outside of the stolen Imperialist ship on Scarif, gunfire and explosions surrounded her. She watched Bodhi run from behind some crates, dragging a thick wire a long with him. Her body was drawn inside as he whooped with triumph at getting his message through. Then she watched in horror as the clink of a grenade filled the ship and exploded.  _

_ Then she was standing in the archive control room as K2 worked ceaselessly to help them despite the fact that his body was being bombarded by pistol blasts. Then he threw his body into the control panel to ensure that no one could interrupt their getting the plans. _

_ Jyn wanted to believe that this was just a dream, that her overactive imagination was making all of this up. But somehow she knew that this was how her friends died.  _

_ Finally she was standing on a beach, watching Chirrut walk through the gunfire chanting his prayer. He made it to his destination and flipped the switch only to be gunned down just as soon as he had finished. Baze’s visceral scream followed as he hurried out to cradle Chirrut’s broken body in his arms.  _

_ Then he wildly fought against the storm troopers, taking what little vengeance he could before he too was taken out by a stray grenade.  _

_ “Why are you showing me this?” Jyn sobbed, not expecting a reply.  _

_ “Mistakes, the Force does not make.” Master Yoda’s voice echoed through her dream.  _

“Jyn! Wake up it’s just a dream.” Cassian shook her awake and Jyn just sobbed. She hadn’t even thought about her friends yet. She didn’t need to before, she and Cassian were going to be dying right a long with them--there was no need for grief. But now that she was alive and everything was different. 

“It wasn’t just a dream.” She croaked. 

“... I know.” He absent-mindedly swiped at his hair, before stoking the fire and adding some more sticks. Once it grew big and warm again he turned to her, “I assume you saw the same thing as I did? Chirrut, Baze and everyone else… you know?” 

Jyn nodded and wiped at her tear-stained cheeks. Cassian sighed “It’s over now, it’s best to get back to sleep.” He moved to head back to his bedroll but Jyn’s hand shot out from underneath her blankets to grab his. 

“Wait!” She sat up halfway, her eyes still swimming with tears. She didn’t want him to go but she didn’t know how to say it.

Another sigh followed Cassian’s first as he got up, Jyn thought for a moment that he was going to ignore her and go back to bed and for a moment hurt filled her. But then she watched him grab his bedroll and drag it around the fire to lay it next to her.

“Better?” He asked. 

“Yes thank you, sorry.” She apologized suddenly feeling embarrassed by her actions, it was totally out of character for her to look for comfort in someone else. She’d stopped doing it so long ago that it felt awkward. 

“Do you want to talk about it the… dream?” He asked ignoring her apology. 

“No not really, but maybe we can talk about something else?” 

“Like what?” 

“... how about a story for a story? You tell me one and I tell you one?” She offered but bit her lower lip when she realized how silly she sounded. “Or we could just go to sleep.” 

A chuckle rumbled out of Cassian’s chest “I was born on the planet Fest. If you know anything about it you’ll know that it’s covered with ice and very little green. This drove my mother absolutely mad, she came from Devaron which is an extremely green planet.” 

“Why'd she go to Fest then?” Jyn interrupted.

“From what I remember my father, who was already involved with the resistance at this time, was placed on Fest by them and if my mother wanted to be with him then that's where she needed to go. Anyways, my mother would always try to grow different kinds of plants even though the planet was inhospitable to anything green and to top it off she didn’t have a way with plants to begin with.” Cassian smiled at the far off memory. 

“When she would go visit my grandmother I remember she used to come back with a bag full of green potted plants and those would die within the month. So our little home was full of pots of dead plants, my father used to say ‘Sara if the rebellion could kill Storm Troopers the way that you kill these poor plants then the war would be over in a month’.” 

This wasn’t something that Cassian had allowed himself to think of for a long time, there were so many bad memories from his childhood that the few precious ones like this he kept locked away deep inside. 

Even though he remembered this so clearly he couldn’t quite remember the way his mother’s face looked--or even his father’s. He remembered that his mother always smelled like cinnamon and that she kept her long black and gray hair in one long plait that would swing as she moved about the house. He also remembered his father’s mustache which used to twitch when he was amused by something he shouldn’t be amused by (usually his mother’s scolding). 

“Okay,” he murmured after a moment “It’s your turn.” 

But Jyn was already asleep, a smile curling on her lips. Unfair. He thought, grinning silently to no one. 

He’d thought about what had happened to them over the past few days while she still slept. When he’d first awoken and she stayed asleep that something was wrong with her. It wasn’t something that he’d had to face because they’d been together for the past few days and he always managed to pull her to safety. Even in the end when her body was twisted with fear he managed to pull her back into the moment. 

But when Master Yoda had assured her that she was healthy he waited. Those two days were the longest in his life--both of them. 

He feared being alone and she had become his partner over the course of just a few days, they survived when their friends had not and they also shared that guilt. But above all she was a good comrade, they worked well together and would need that for whatever the Force had in store for them.

With that thought Cassian drifted off into a blessedly dreamless sleep. 


	3. Chapter 3

**3**

**ex·u·ber·ance**

_the quality of being full of energy, excitement, and cheerfulness; ebullience._

“Cassian, do not move.” The sound of Jyn’s voice woke him up the next morning. He almost wanted to ask what was wrong but upon opening his eyes he could see. Some kind of creature was crouched over him, it’s maw open revealing hundreds of razor sharp teeth. A string of saliva came from it’s mouth and was very nearly touching his nose. 

Jyn was crouched a few feet away, slowly inching towards their packs where their blasters were. 

“Be very, very quiet.” She murmured as she opened and slowly pulled out the blaster. But as she did the pack fell over causing a large thud. The creature looked up and let out a blood curdling screech and slithered off of Cassian and began to run at Jyn.  
  
She squeezed the trigger and it exploded, sending chunks of flesh everywhere. 

They stared at each other in silence for a moment, “Maybe we should do a night watch after all.” Jyn suggested. 

“I think that is a very good idea.” Cassian agreed, plucking a piece of flesh that was already starting to stink off of his bedroll. 

They packed up quickly after that, not knowing how many more creatures lurked in the swamp around them and didn’t want to stick around to find out. Their second day of travelling wasn’t as idyllic as their first had been. 

The swamp was ridiculously humid and damp causing mosquitoes to target any of Cassian and Jyn’s uncovered faces. By the time mid-afternoon rolled around, Jyn’s arms were covered in pink welts and she couldn’t put her jacket on because of the heat. 

“Maybe you should put some cream on that.” Cassian held out a metal tin to her which she snatched out of his hand. The heat had been causing them to snipe back and forth at one another like little children. 

“I know what I should and shouldn’t do for my arms, thank you.” She replied curtly but began to liberally spread it on her arms, trying and failing to not let out a little sigh of relief. 

They sat and ate their dinner, which was a pittance of soup, in silence. Jyn’s stomach growled later on that night as she offered to take first watch. She wished they could eat more but Master Yoda had given them no time-frame as to how long their journey would take and neither of them had any idea of what plants around them were edible. 

“Jyn?” Cassian asked about three hours into her watch causing her to jump with surprise because she thought he’d been asleep. 

“You should be sleeping it’s not your turn to watch yet.” She chided as he rolled over to face her. 

“You never told me your story last night, it goes both ways--remember?” His dark eyes danced in the dim firelight and she couldn’t help but smile, her earlier irritance at him quickly fading. 

“When I was four years old we escaped Coruscant and the Empire and went into hiding on Lah’mu. I didn’t fully understand at the time why we did this, though I do now. I was sad because I had to leave all of my toys and things like that--all of my creature comforts.” 

Jyn ran her fingers over her Kyber crystal necklace and it glowed faintly in the firelight as she continued on; “I hated Lah’mu, there was nothing to do and no one to talk to. My father who had always been my best playmate no longer had time as he was putting all of his time in trying to grow food to put on our table. One day, when I was about seven, I decided that I had had enough of being ignored by both of my parents and that I would run away.” 

“Always a good idea for a seven year old.” Cassian laughed. 

“Wasn’t it? Anyway, I had it all planned out. One morning before my parents woke up I gathered my pack and put my blanket and pillow inside and just left. No food or water of course and no compass either. By the time that lunch rolled around I was hungry and lost.” 

“What happened?” 

“My parents found me an hour later crying in the sand, not one of my best moments. My mother shook me soundly, I think they thought that Imperial soldiers had somehow taken me, and then hugged me so tightly I thought she’d squeeze the breath right out of me.”

“My mother would have killed me and then brought me back to life if I had tried that.” Cassian said and they shared a laugh before Jyn continued soberly. 

“They then began to plan, they created a secret room about a mile away from our homestead that was hidden by rocks. They told me that this is where I needed to go if we were ever in any danger. A year later thats where Saw Gerrera found me after my mother was shot by Imperial soldiers and my father was taken.” 

She hated that all of her good memories of her parents were tinged by tragedy. Cassian watched her face turn from nostalgic to indifferent. 

He hesitantly reached out and grasped her hand in his own, he didn’t know if he was pushing her boundaries. They’d gripped each other so tightly on the beach when they died, but they had been near death then, things were different. He held his breath waiting for her to pull away, but when she squeezed his hand he relaxed. 

After a few moments of silence he sat up, “I’ll take the rest of the watch.” he offered and held his hand out for the blaster. 

Jyn almost protested since she had only been on watch for three hours, but sleepiness had settled in for her as she told her story and it was all she could do to keep her eyes open. 

The third day was much easier than the first two. During the day Cassian regaled her with tales from his younger days in the rebellion. 

He spoke about the men who he grew up with and fought beside and the shenanigans that they had pulled together. He also spoke of their deaths, and how he continued to fight for them even though he very probably would die himself. He also told her the few stories about his short childhood that he could. 

That night Jyn, in turn, told him about becoming a child soldier for the rebellion and Saw Gerrera’s odd amalgam of being a father figure to her but also her superior. She also told him about being left for dead by Gerrera when she was sixteen because of who she was and how she’d had to turn to crime in order to survive. 

They made good time together and by the fourth day they came upon a cave, the entrance to the cave was about thirty feet up and water streamed from it in a sparkling waterfall. 

“Think this is where Master Yoda wanted us to go?” Cassian asked, looking over at Jyn who was staring at the mouth of the cave. 

“Only one way to find out, right?” She placed a hand on an outcropping of rock and began to climb, “Come on, race you to the top!” 

Never one to back down from a challenge, Cassian scrambled up the rock after her--reaching the top just before she did. 

“Not fair.” She groaned as she sat next to him on the ledge, panting and not caring that she was getting completely soaked by the stream of water. “You’re taller than I am!” 

“And you,” he gasped “Got a headstart!” 

She got to her feet and held her hands, which he took gratefully, and helped him to his feet. Together they turned and stared into the cave with was more of a tunnel than anything. Vines hung down from the domed ceiling concealing whatever lay beyond. 

A tingling sensation covered Jyn’s body as wind blew through the tunnel from the depths and ruffled her hair. 

“Should we go further in?” she asked. 

“Yeah, why not, whats the worst that can happen?” Cassian joked and was rewarded with a withering look. “I’ll be with you all the way.” He reassured her holding out his hand to her, which she took without hesitation. Their clasped hands were a comfort to both for reasons they couldn’t quite fathom just yet, but they had been prone to do it over the past 48 hours. 

Together they headed further into the tunnel.


	4. Chapter 4

**4**

**lu·mi·nes·cence**

_ the emission of light by a substance that has not been heated, as in fluorescence and phosphorescence. _

Twenty minutes later when the sunlight from behind them had all but disappeared Cassian was cursing his lack of forethought--he should have tried to fashion some sort of torch before they decided to go spelunking through a cave. 

“We should head back to the jungle so I can get us some light.” Cassian said, not liking the total darkness that surrounded them. 

“Wait.” Jyn said suddenly, an idea forming in her mind. She dug into her shirt and pulled her Kyber crystal necklace out and held it between them. It glowed faintly in the darkness.

“If you think that that will give us enough light to see in this cave then I may need to check your temperature.” 

“Shh.” She snapped and closed her eyes, focusing on her hands. She opened her eyes a moment later when Cassian gasped. The crystal glowed brighter, not enough to see quite yet but enough to illuminate their shocked faces. 

“You try.” Jyn whispered, afraid if she spoke too loudly that she’d ruin it. 

“I can’t I’m not Force sensitive--I never have been.” Cassian took a step back. 

“Neither have I. But we are both Force  _ something  _ now.” Jyn grabbed Cassian’s hand and dragged it to cover her hand which had the crystal clutched in it. “Just… breath and focus on the crystal. Think about your blood moving to your fingers and tingling there.” She didn’t know if he was explaining it very well but when the crystal glowed ever brighter she grinned at him. 

“This is amazing.” Cassian whispered as the tunnel around them became illuminated, allowing them to see where they were going. 

It was awkward moving from there because they had their hands clasped in front of them, holding the crystal out, like some sort of silly tango. But it worked. 

Ten minutes later they stumbled through the last set of vines and into a large cavern. Water flowed from somewhere above, creating an even larger waterfall than at the entrance to the cave that flowed through the tunnel behind them. 

Jyn was busy looking at the waterfall when Cassian nudged her, gesturing to the rest of the cavern. Crystals lined the cave, all glowing faintly, illuminating the cavern. 

“Kyber crystals.” Jyn breathed, she’d never seen so many in one place. “How did the Empire never find this place?” She wondered aloud. 

“Because the Empire overlooks the planet of Dagobah nine times out of ten.” A familiar voice boomed through the cavern. 

Jyn and Cassian shared a surprised look and squinted around the crystals which began to glow brighter than before. A figure emerged from a large cluster, glowing white. He was nearly see through and he glided up to them with a serene smile on his face. 

“Chirrut!” Jyn shouted, beginning to run towards him but Cassian caught her around the waist, tugging her back to him. She nearly stomped on his foot but Chirrut held up a hand. 

“You cannot touch me, even if you try Jyn Erso.” 

“How is this possible?” Cassian asked, not releasing a limp Jyn. 

“I am one with the Force and the Force is one with me.” Chirrut intoned simply. Cassian almost scoffed but caught himself. Of course that’s what Chirrut would say.

“Is Baze with you?” Jyn asked, quickly collecting herself again.

Chirrut looked sad for a moment before he answered “No he is not, but I will be with him soon enough. I just need to relay a message.” 

“What?” Jyn and Cassian asked simultaneously. 

That got a smile from their friend, “In good time, but first I must show you ticket off of this planet. Come.” He began to float upwards. 

Jyn and Cassian looked at one another and around the cave until they discovered an old stone staircase cut into the wall of the cavern. They hurried to follow the ascending monk, pushing webs and vines out of their way until they reached the top of the stairs. 

They were back outside now, staring off of the edge of a cliff. Wind whipped their hair and the sun dipped low in the distance. Behind them was another section of the forest. 

Cassian almost asked if Chirrut had lost his mind in death until his eyes came upon a moss covered rock. He stepped up to it and ran a hand over it, the moss fell away revealing a very old and very small ship. 

“This is supposed to be our way off of this planet? This ship doesn’t look like it’s flown in years.” Cassian asked the ghostly monk incredulously. 

“I have faith that you can get it off of the ground.” Chirrut hovered over a nearby rock, his legs crossed in the air. Cassian groaned and he and Jyn began to uncover the ship, trying to assess the damage if any. 

“Jyn Erso, Cassian Andor,” Chirrut’s voice boomed suddenly causing them to jump. “Your purpose in the galaxy has not yet been fulfilled. You must head back to Lah’mu, there is something waiting for you there. You will know where to go from there.” 

“What do you mean ‘we will know where to go from there’?” Jyn asked “Can you be a little more specific?” 

But Chirrut was already fading, a mysterious smile plastered on his face. “Trust one another. I know you can do it. And do me one more favor, live your lives--it’s not everyday that you get a second chance so don’t waste it.” 

Then he was gone, leaving Jyn and Cassian standing next to an old and moss covered ship. 

“That was…” Jyn began, a little dumbfounded. 

“Cryptic.” Cassian finished for her as he turned to the ship with a huge sigh. 

“Do you think you can get it in the air?” 

He plucked a large piece of moss off of the hull “I guess it will have to if we want to get off of this planet.” 

They worked together quietly for the next hour, clearing away the moss and the debris, until the light had finally faded from the horizon and they needed to light a fire in order to see.

“We have gotten it mostly cleared off,” Cassian observed as he took a step back to gauge their progress “I’ll open it up tomorrow and start getting an idea of what I need and can do.” 

Jyn nodded as she dropped another round of sticks near the fire for later. “In that case I’m going to go wash off in the river.” She felt all grimy from their sweaty, humid, journey.

“Be careful.” He called as she headed off towards the river, her crystal clutched in her hand. It was becoming increasingly easier for her to make it glow enough for her to see her way in the dark. When she reached rocky outcropping that pooled off from the flow of the river she was pleased to find more Kyber crystals sprinkled through the water. When she stripped off her clothes and stepped into the cool water the crystals lit up, their glow reaching out for her.

She waded into the middle of the pool until it the water was up to her waist dunked herself underneath, rubbing her hands through her hair in an attempt to dislodge the dirt and untangle her knotted hair. 

When she finally came up for air she nearly screamed when she saw Chirrut floating above her. 

“Chirrut I’m naked!” she gasped as she pushed through the water to grab her shirt. 

“And I’m still blind.” the force-ghost replied dryly. Still, Jyn covered herself with her shirt which was now soaked. “I just wanted to add one more thing for your ears only, Jyn Erso. You need to open yourself up--more so than ever.” 

Jyn opened her mouth to respond but Chirrut was already fading fast “Trust yourself and Cassian. Don’t be afraid of things changing because they will more than likely change for the better.” 

Then he was gone, leaving Jyn standing in the middle of the pool with a wet shirt and a confused mind. “Why did he need to come back and repeat himself?” She mumbled to herself as she decided to scrub her shirt since it was already wet. 

An hour later she emerged from the pool, cleaner but more thoughtful than when she had entered it. She held her wet shirt out in front of her and sighed, she’d just have to wear her tank top for the night until the shirt was dry. 

“Have a good bath?” Cassian asked from a rock by the fire, he’d heated up some more of the stew that Master Yoda had given them and held out a small bowl to Jyn. 

“Yes,” she replied curtly, “And you should have one too you stink.” She moved past him to drape her shirt over a nearby rock before taking her soup and quietly eating it. 

“Alright, you don’t need to tell me twice. I’ll be back soon.” He stood and headed into the darkness, not wanting to stick around and ask what was making her so cranky. 

Jyn sat by the fire and stared into it, thinking about Chirrut’s words. She hadn’t wanted to listen the first time either--how was she supposed to trust Cassian the way that the Force and everyone else wanted her to? 

It was one thing when they were on a mission where their outcome of living was exactly zero. But in times like this? Too many other things got in the way, they were alive but that was it. As soon as they got off this planet and finished whatever they needed to do he could leave and continue being a rebel and Jyn could… she didn’t know. 


	5. Chapter 5

**5**

**e·phem·er·al**

_lasting for a very short time._

She was curled up in her bedroll when he finally returned. She nearly pretended to be asleep as he draped his own shirt on the rock next to hers, but when her eyes followed the curve of his back she gasped. White scars lined his back and upper torso, some small and some spanning a crossed his back.

“What happened to your back?”

Cassian turned to her a sheepish smile on his face “I forget about them sometimes, give me a moment.” He grabbed his bedroll and spread it out next to hers, a habit that they had picked up over the last few days, and sat down with his back to her.

“These came from lots of different things--mostly things having to do with the rebellion. But this one,” he gestured to the long one spanning a crossed his shoulders, “I got it when I was six.”

Jyn hesitantly reached out to touch it, drawing back a little when he flinched. “Sorry.”

“It is alright, you just surprised me.” He relaxed again and after a moment her fingers touched the long scar.  
“What happened?”

“It was a bad day in the town where I grew up--there was a lot of unrest due to a large amount of Stormtroopers who were in the area over the past few weeks. My mother and I were at the marketplace trying to get ingredients for dinner. She was hurrying because she could feel the tension in the air. But we were not face enough.”

“A Stormtrooper shot at a belligerent citizen and all hell broke loose. Suddenly everyone was fighting and there were explosions everywhere. My mother was pushing me from behind trying to get out of the line of fire when a stray blast knocked us off our feet. My shirt was on fire and I rolled to put it out but it was some of the worst pain I’ve ever felt. When I finally got it out I turned to help my mother to my feet but the blast had killed her.”

Jyn pressed a hand to her mouth as she visualised what she had just been told. “What happened after that?”

“My father found us later and he changed from that point on. Before he would just relay information to the Rebel cause but now he fought for it outright. It was only six months later when I began to fight too.”

“You were a child soldier?”

“Weren’t we both?” Cassian asked wryly. When Jyn looked down at her hands he felt instantly guilty, he detached himself so much from his story that he forgot to be empathetic--especially since Jyn grew up in a very similar way to him. “I’m sorry I won’t upset you anymore.”

“No!” Jyn said holding up her hands “You didn’t upset me I… hold on.” She grabbed the hem of her tanktop and hiked it up bringing his fingers to the rigid scar that lined her ribs. “I got this when I was eleven. I was on a mission for Gerrera. We were supposed to be on a mission to gather information but the others in the mission had another directive. They were supposed to assassinate an Imperial Politician. But we were discovered and I got hit by a stray blaster shot and it grazed my ribs. I was in the medbay for two weeks.”

Cassian’s mind was filled the image of a young Jyn with pigtails on missions that were too much even for adults. He felt a special kind of anger at this, even though he had fought much younger than she had.

“Anyways.” Jyn said pulling her shirt down “We should get some sleep, long day of cleaning out that old beast tomorrow.” She lay back and pulled the blankets up to her chin, afraid that the intimacy of that moment would make it awkward to work with Cassian.

But as she drifted off to sleep she heard Cassian whisper “Goodnight Jyn.”

* * *

They worked through the next two days cleaning the ship out, making many trips to the stream to clean off the rags that they’d ripped from their shirts. Finally the ship was as clean as it was going to get and looked to be in a good enough shape.

“The problem is that it’s old.” Cassian told her as he sat in the cockpit next to her. They’d packed everything and were going to try their first attempt to turn the ship on. “I saw things like this in the rebellion’s junkyard.”

Jyn’s palms were sweaty with nervousness as she flipped switched and moved to press the ignition like she’d been instructed as Cassian jumped down to check if the engines were all firing up.

He nodded at her when he was ready and she pressed the ignition, the engine sputtered a few times before going silent. It was an underwhelming first try and Cassian who was frustrated by this kicked the side of the ship soundly. Much to their surprise the ship sputtered to life.

They both cheered, Jyn launched herself from the cockpit into Cassian who caught her and swung her around.

“We did it, I didn’t think it was ever going to start.” She said squeezing him tightly.

“I had faith.” Cassian said sounding very like Chirrut “Now come, lets get ready to go before the ship decides that it doesn’t want to run anymore.

They put out their fire and put everything into the ship. “Should we bring more crystals?” Cassian asked, looking over at a nearby cluster of crystals.

Jyn thought about it for a moment before shaking her head “No, they belong here.” she said swinging herself up into the ship and holding her hand out to him.

He took it and she pulled him into the cockpit next to her. “Ready captain?”

“More than you will ever know,” He grinned, flipping switches, “Setting course to Lah’mu. Lets get off this planet.”

* * *

The trip to Lah’mu took two weeks because the hyperdrive on the ship wasn’t the strongest, their jumps were very short and it took several hours before they could attempt another jump. It didn’t help that Dagobah was such a remote planet on the opposite end of the galaxy to Lah’mu.

By the time that they reached their destination they were all but out of food and water--both were grateful when the planet finally came into their sights.

“My family’s homestead was on the eastern side of the planet near the black sand beaches.” Jyn said almost reverently as they broke through the atmosphere. It took another hour for them to find said beaches and when they did Jyn immediately saw what she was looking for.

“Put the ship down just there.” She pointed at the base of a large rocky outcropping that was about a mile from the water.

Cassian did as instructed, noticing Jyn’s fixation on the rock, she looked like she was itching to throw off her safety belt and jump out of the ship before they even touched the ground. “Patience.” he said softly as he brought the ship down to land heavily in the black sand.

As soon as he did so she opened the door and hurried out onto the sand, running towards the rocky outcropping.

Cassian finished shutting down the ship, cursing to himself, before following her. “Jyn where are you going?” He called as she disappeared behind a large rock, as he rounded it he found the entrance to a cave and Jyn gripping the edge of a rock and lifting.

“What is that?” He asked, joining her at the mouth of what looked like a hatch opening into the ground. Webs filled the hole, clinging to the metal rungs of a ladder.

“This,” Jyn gestured to the hole “Is where I hid the day they came for my father and killed my mother. I had to see if it was still here.” She threw a leg over the side and climbed inside, her crystal glowing against her chest effortlessly.

“I’ll be back.”

“Do you think what we need is in there?” Cassian asked wanting to follow her but one look at her face told him that it would be a bad idea.

“Only one way to find out.” She called from below, her hands gripped the rungs tightly, she never thought she would be climbing down this ever again after Gerrera found her. She was so afraid of this hole when she was younger, when her parents would practice their escape plan her mother would bring her down and they would sit for an hour with their weak lantern glowing in between them.

Then she had to sit by herself after watching her mother be killed--she sat in that hole long enough for the lantern to begin to lose power and for the darkness to swallow her up.

Then Gerrera found her and she’d hardened herself to the world in order to live up to this expectations. The soft little girl who had run away because she wasn’t getting enough attention learned how to fight and keep up with men twice her age and size.

Jyn’s thoughts were cut short when her foot hit the bottom of the hole. The crystal illuminated the space around her and she sneezed due to the dust that had been kicked up into the air. An old pillow was shoved up against the wall and the lantern sat next to it.

After a moment Jyn was about to give up when she nearly tripped over a cylindrical object. She picked it up and blew the dust off of it. She squinted into the darkness trying to see what it was but couldn’t quite make it out. It was made of some sort of metal she knew that much, and it tingled under her fingers.

She hooked it onto her belt and climbed back up the hole, the light at the top making her climb quicker--she was quickly feeling claustrophobic again.

Cassian was waiting for her with his hand outstretched to her and she took it gratefully.

“What is that?” he asked once she was standing on level ground again. Jyn used the edge of her shirt to wipe away at the grime that covered the object. She was about to say she didn’t know when it finally clicked.

“It’s a lightsaber.” She said with wonder as she held up the dented object reverently.

Cassian had never seen one in his lifetime, the Jedi had been around when he was very young but had been rare even then. They had all been wiped out and their lightsabers went with them.

“It’s a little… underwhelming.” he said after a moment as he ran his finger along the silver, metal. “Do you think you could make it you know… light?”

Jyn closed her eyes and let all of her focus move to her fingertips like she did with the crystal. When she opened her eyes and found that nothing had happened she shrugged “Its not that surprising, i’m no Jedi. Here, you try.”

Cassian was doubtful but he took it anyway and tried to focus his energy in his fingertips to no avail. “Guess not.” He sheepishly handed it back to Jyn who hooked it on her belt.

“Do you think this is what we were looking for?” Cassian asked “Should we leave now?”

Nibbling on her lower lip Jyn shook her head, “I think we need to go there.” Her voice shook a little bit and Cassian knew where there was.

They left the cave and began the climb up the sand bank, at the top they could see a house in the distance. Jyn’s heart thudded in her chest. She was home.


	6. Chapter 6

**6**

**Hi·ra·eth**

_ a homesickness for a home you can’t return to, or that never was.  _

Jyn’s childhood home was decrepit. It seemed that no one moved in after her family was torn apart and the house was in disarray, windows were broken out and the door was hanging on it’s hinges. Her eyes followed every curve of the house, making a note of every window and every piece of wood that used to be a gate, and compared it to her childhood memory.

She vastly preferred her childhood memory.

Her feet carried her forward and she could hear Cassian following closely behind her. Instead of entering the house first she went around the back where two rocks sat up against the back of the house. They were tombstones.

She dropped to her knees in the dark sand, waving off Cassian’s hands, and scooted forwards. Reaching out she ran her fingers over the etching.

“Why are you carving gravestones?” Jyn asked her father on the afternoon that he had made them, she had just turned eight the day before and in her childhood mind this seemed like a big turn from the joy of yesterday.

“You remember our plan right?” Galen asked, blowing away the stone dust as he etched her mother’s name.

“Yes.” Jyn replied glumly, thinking of the hole in the cave.

“These are so that the bad men will think that your mother and you are no longer here and won’t look too hard for you.”

Jyn scrunched her nose, “But momma and I aren’t dead.”

Galen chuckled at his daughter’s confusion. “I know that and you know that, but they won’t.”

“Jyn?” Cassian’s voice interrupted her memory and she realized that there were tears running down her face. “What are these?”

She wiped at them with her sleeve and gave the gravestone that said ‘Lyra Erso’ a pat.

“These were a cover for my mother and I--when the Krennic found us my father told them that my mother and I had died--these were supposed to be proof.” But her mother had actually died. Jyn wondered morbidly if her mother was actually buried here but doubted it.

Standing Jyn entered the house through the back door which was rusty with age and squealed open. Dust floated in the sunlight that filtered in through the broken windows and all of the furniture that had once been neatly kept by her mother was turned over. Their kitchen cupboards were flung open and dishes were shattered on the floor.

The sight of it nearly knocked the breath out of Jyn, she could almost envision her mother sitting at the little table by the window with her feet drawn up underneath her as she read a book or her father puttering around the house, tinkering with things that weren’t broken.

Glass crunched under her feet as she headed further into the house, entering the hallway that led to the two bedrooms. She pressed her palm onto a pad next to one of the doors and entered her childhood bedroom which was just as torn up as the rest of the house, one of her stuffed animals was torn to shreds and spread throughout the room.

She backed quickly out of the room not wanting to be in any longer and nearly knocked into Cassian, who gripped her shoulders to steady her. “Are you alright?” he asked and she shook her head, not really having the words to describe what she was feeling.

She headed further down the hallway to the last door and pressed her palm onto it. The door slid open and she stepped into her parents bedroom. Nostalgia hit her hard, she was surprised that the room still felt like her parent’s--it even smelled like them still if that were even possible.

It was torn up as well but not as much as the rest of the house, the sheets had been pulled off of the bed and the mattress was cut into and the innards were pulled out. The dresser drawers were open on her father’s side of the bed and empty. They must have let him take his things when they took him.

“I don’t know what i’m looking for.” Jyn finally said, turning around to look at Cassian who was watching her very closely. “They could have at least given us a hint how am I supposed to find something if I don’t even know what I’m looking for? I never wanted to come back here there is nothing for me here--” her voice grew increasingly panicked and she ran a hand through her hair causing it to stand on end.

Cassian grabbed her hand and dragged her into his arms, holding her as she rambled on. “Hey, it’s alright there is no pressure.” He never returned to his childhood home either, he knew that the emotions that he would have felt would have been too much.

“This doesn’t even feel like home--it’s a hideout…” she trailed off before pulling away with surprise “It’s a hideout!” She let go of him and hurried about the bed.

“My mother used to tell me all about the secret compartments that this place had and that it was easy to put things where they won’t be found. When I was being bad she used to take away my toys and hide them and told me that if I could find them then I could have them back--but I never could find them…” Jyn racked her entire memory of her mother and her mother’s movements. She remembered her mother used to sit in this corner when she was having a hard day… Jyn’s finger’s slid over a button so tiny that it was hard to see with the naked eye.

A little compartment in the corner popped open and Jyn shared a triumphant look with Cassian. Reaching inside she pulled out a tiny stack of photos with a note on top that said ‘For Jyn’.

“They knew you would come back here one day.” Cassian said reading the note over her shoulder.

Together they sat on the ruined mattress and flipped through the photos. There were many of her as an infant and a little girl. “I don’t know where any of these places are.” Jyn said glumly, her excitement over their discovery soon fading.

The last image was of her and her parents holding her between them, she looked about two or three and she was reaching towards the camera. Cassian flipped the photo over and neatly printed on the back in her mother’s handwriting was:

‘Jyn age 2, Trip to Tatooine’

Jyn ran a finger over the writing, “Do you think this means anything?”

“I don’t know but I know that Tatooine isn’t a place that people just take ‘trips’ to.” Cassian said with distaste.

“I’ve never been--well I guess that’s not true--but I don’t remember ever having been.”

“I’ve been there on a few missions and let me tell you it’s hot and dry and just generally not a very good place to be.” They stood and headed back through the house, Cassian complaining about Tatooine the entire way. He was telling Jyn about all of the sand when the sound of a ship made them go silent.

Cassian dragged Jyn to the floor and pressed a finger to his lips, Jyn wanted to make a comment about him being the one doing all the talking but she held her tongue. They crawled through the glass until they were underneath a window.

Cassian peered over the sill and cursed. “Those are Stormtroopers outside. We must have triggered some alarm when we came inside.”

Jyn’s heart leapt into her throat and she reached down for her blaster.

“Lets go out the back.” She murmured and they began their crawl a crossed the room to the back door.

They managed to get outside just as the Stormtroopers entered the house, then they were running. It was a moment before they heard “Hey stop right there!”

Blasts shot past them as they ran for their lives. “Zigzag! Zigzag!” Jyn yelled to Cassian as they ran a crossed the overgrown field and back towards the ship.

“I am try to get from point a to point b as fast as possible!” Cassian yelled from ahead of her.

“Yes but if you don’t want to get shot,” she turned her body in order to fire back at the pursuing Stormtroopers, “Then you need to zigzag!”

“Is this really the best time to be arguing about this?”

Jyn ignored him as they made it to the ship and swung herself inside. They were in the air in seconds, lifting away from the surface of the planet and away from the Stormtroopers who were below.

“We need to get away from this planet before they call for backup--if they haven’t already.” Cassian said from the controls looking over at Jyn who looked odd “Are you alright?”

“I…” Jyn said as the adrenaline faded and her shoulder began to ache. She pulled her jacket off with some difficulty and hissed with pain when she saw her shoulder which was covered with blood.

“You were hit?” Cassian was trying to focus both on piloting their ship through the atmosphere and on her.

“Yes. Keep your eyes up front Andor.” She hissed as the ship shuddered from the resistance of the atmosphere. “It just grazed me, nothing serious.”

“And you were the one who was telling me to zigzag.” Cassian joked as they made it through the atmosphere and into open space.

Jyn’s glare kept him from making any more ill-timed jokes, “Anyways,” He hurried on “Tattoine is unfortunately at least a week’s journey away. This old girl needs fuel, not to mention we don’t have any other supplies.”

Jyn nodded, reaching out to type their parameters into the navigation “Alright… setting a course for Corellia.” She informed him before turning to watch Lah’mu fade into the distance.


	7. Chapter 7

**7**

**a·me·lio·rate**

_To make or become better, more bearable or more satisfactory._

Jyn knew very little about Corellia but Cassian seemed almost energized as they touched down in the concrete shipyard that edged around the city.

“This is where many of the pilots in the resistance have trained.” He told her as he logged their ship into the system. A toll warning popped up and Jyn and Cassian exchanged a look. One of the things they didn’t have was money.

“Give me an hour.” Jyn said pulling on her jacket over her bandaged shoulder.

“To do what?” Cassian asked and the look she gave him told him not to ask anymore questions. Jyn gave him a mock little salute before disappearing into the crowd.

When Jyn reappeared barely forty-five minutes later Cassian was taking a cat nap inside of the ship, he’d been skimping on sleep over the past two weeks in order to get them to Lah’mu.

Jyn dropped a couple of bags of coins onto Cassian’s stomach. “Lets go get supplies…” When she saw his face she held up her hands “Don’t worry I didn’t steal from civilians--strictly Imperial officers who wouldn’t miss a couple of credits.”

“Thats even more dangerous Jyn.” Cassian wanted to take her by her shoulders and give her a firm shake but he instead stood “Next time I’ll go with you. Just in case you get into a bind you can’t get out of.”

“I can look after myself Cassian.” Jyn informed him, irritated by his words. She’d been doing it long enough for herself, why wouldn’t he let her do it for them?

“If I remember correctly you were in prison when the Alliance found you.” Cassian shot right back as they exited the ship and he began to fuel it, inserting credits into the pump. Jyn opened her mouth to protest but Cassian held up a hand to stop her.

“I just want to make sure that you are safe.” He said gently as the fuel pump finished up, “I know you can do things by yourself. But you shouldn’t have to, thats what having friends is for.”

Jyn had no argument to back that up so she just kept her mouth shut at they closed the ship and headed into the marketplace.

People bustled everywhere around them and people called at them from their stalls--urging them to come and peruse their wares.

Jyn and Cassian stopped only at the stalls that they needed, purchasing oil for the old stove in the ship and fresh meat and vegetables along with other more sensible dehydrated rations. They also purchased new clothing as the clothes they were in were dirty, bloodied and tattered.

After they’d finished and were ladened down with parcels they headed back to the ship, stowing everything away.

“I’m going to head to the junkyard to try and find something for the hyperdrive--we can’t keep travelling the way we are it’s not smart. I’ve hooked up the water pump to the ship so you can try taking a shower, I don’t know how well it will work since--”

“The ship is so old.” Jyn finished for him and he grinned at her, their earlier disagreement all but forgotten by a day of relative ease that they hadn’t felt in a long time.

After Cassian left Jyn gathered her new clothes, fully intending to toss the old ones into the trash, and a bar of soap that smelled of vanilla (it had been a splurge purchase on her part) and headed into the tiny little restroom that was at the back of the ship.

It was barely big enough for her to stand in and the shower was even smaller. She twisted one of the knobs, fully expecting it to not work, but when water rushed through the spout--brown at first and then clear--she grinned to herself.

She took longer in the shower than she probably should have, massaging the soap into her skin and lathering her hair several times.

When she emerged dressed in a pair of light brown trousers and and a soft blue shirt she felt better than she had in a long time.

She was just re-bandaging her arm when Cassian came back into the ship, his arms fulled of different metal objects.

“Are you any good with ship repair?” he asked, dropping the pieces onto the floor.

“I can replace something if you guide me through it, but by myself? Probably not.”

“I could use a second pair of hands, the faster we get this ship in good running condition the faster we can get to Tatooine.”

Jyn put away the rest of the medical kit and stood, “Lets see what we can get done before it’s too dark tonight.” She moved past him and out of the ship, leaving him blinking at the vanilla scent that followed her.

* * *

They stayed on Corellia for a week, working most of the day on the ship. Whenever Cassian needed a new part Jyn would disappear for a while and return with it. Cassian had decided that after the first day that he wouldn’t press her anymore about her thievery. They needed to get to Tatooine and neither of them could drop everything and get a job.

Finally, the ship was as good as it was going to get. On their last night on Corellia Jyn was attempting to cook something that didn’t come out of a dehydrated rations packet.

“Question,” Cassian began, coming up behind her and causing her to jump. She’d been staring at the meat as it sizzled in the pan. “Did you put any spices on that?”

“Spices?” Jyn asked, she’d never used them before. Then again, she rarely ever cooked and even then she’d usually just thrown the meat into the pan--it tasted good enough to her.

Cassian looked mock offended and he bumped her out of the way with his hip “I’m glad I got these then.” He opened one of the storage cupboards and pulled out a paper packet.

“This is salt.” He said as he sprinkled it liberally over the meat.

“I know what salt is.” Jyn crossed her arms over her chest and watched as he expertly flipped the meat in the pan. “I’m surprised that Captain Cassian Andor can cook.”

“Well when you are one your own you tend to pick up a few things, but yes you are right I am full of surprises.”

Jyn sat on the bunk and let Cassian finish making the food and she had to admit, when he finally held a plate of sliced meat out to her, that the smell of the meat was mouthwatering.

She’d only ever had things like this when she stole enough to buy them from a food stall. The meat was tender and juicy with a little kick thanks to the salt and she found herself closing her eyes with pleasure as she ate.

Cassian watched her with a smug smile as he ate his own portion, ignoring the little twist in his stomach that came from watching her rapturous reaction to the seasoned meat.

“Good?”

“Delicious, it’s going to be hard to go back to eating dehydrated food.” Jyn said as she finished her food.

“Well hopefully we won’t have to stick with them for too long once we get to Tatooine.”

“I wonder what we are looking for on Tatooine?” Jyn asked as she took off her shoes and climbed to the top of the bunk where her bedroll had been set up.

“I don’t know.” Cassian replied from below as he pulled the blanket up to his chin. “But I’m sure the Force will let us know--it definitely has a way of hitting us in the face with it’s directives.”

Jyn would have replied, but she’d already drifted off to sleep.

* * *

The sound of someone knocking something over and cursing brought Jyn abruptly awake. She lay in the dark listening to a harshly whispered argument.

“You are going to wake them up.”

“I’m not the one who nearly knocked over that compression coil.”

Jyn listened to them as they rummaged through the ship and was filled with anger, who in the world had the gall to try to steal from someone’s ship while they were inside it? She reached under her pillow and found her blaster.

Light filled the room as she allowed her energy to flow into the crystal and she aimed her blaster in the direction of the noise.

“You’d better drop whatever is in your hands before I shoot it out of your hands.” She growled, sliding off of the bunk and landing with a soft thud. One glance at Cassian told her that he’d woken up too and was pointing his blaster at the intruders.

“Whoah! Don’t shoot!” One of them shrieked and pulled his hood away from his face and Jyn gasped. They were both just kids!

“What are you doing on our ship?” Cassian pulled the blanket away from his legs and stood.

“Well the door wasn’t locked so we came in to tell you so.” The taller boy said, stepping in front of the shorter girl who looked a few years younger than him. She had bright blue skin with white markings and as Jyn looked at her closely she realized that the girl wasn’t human but a Togruta.

“How kind of you.” Cassian replied, narrowing his eyes at them.

“We are the wrong people to mess with. Whats your name?” Jyn asked, keeping her blaster trained on them.

“Are you going to report us to the guards?” the girl’s voice shook with fear as she looked at the boy.

“I will if you don’t tell me your names.” Cassian lied, even if they were trying to steal he would never send Imperial guards after them.

“I’m Miira and this is my brother Thadis.” The little girl stepped around Thadis despite his protests.

“Brother?” Jyn asked looking between the two at the obvious differences between them.

“We’re orphans.” Miira answered sheepishly. “Thad takes care of me, but we steal things from ships so we can eat.”

“Miira.” Thadis snapped and she shrank back behind her brother. “If you aren’t going to report us we need to get going.” He dragged his sister by hand with him towards the door of the ship.

“Thadis.” Jyn called, stopping him. She threw a back his way, “It’s not much but it’ll get you something to eat. You both need to get better at stealing, maybe next time try a ship that doesn’t have two armed persons in it.” She advised.

Thadis paused for a moment before grudgingly nodding, pocketing the credits and continuing to drag his sister out of the ship. “Come on Miira.”

“Bye! Thank you!” Miira called over her shoulder with an exuberant smile that Jyn had no doubts would fade over the years.

After they had left and Cassian had secured he turned to her with a grin, “Softie.” He teased.

“Yeah, yeah. Lets get off of this planet before all of the orphans of Corellia flock here looking for a handout.”

Cassian just smiled and began to flip the switches that would turn on the ship.


	8. Chapter 8

**8**

**la·cu·na**

_an unfilled space or interval; a gap._

Jyn’s first look at Tatooine was disappointing. It was a planet made up of varying shades of brown and once they’d entered the atmosphere she noticed several dark clouds of brown hovering over the ground.

“Sandstorms.” Cassian said from his place next to her as he deftly guided the ships away from those places. “They move faster than you’d think, more than one mission has been put into jeopardy by their fickle nature.”

They landed in Mos Espa an hour later, the city was large and full of domed buildings made of sunbaked clay. Jyn watched people bustle about the shipyard, they along with their clothes were covered in a thin layer of dust that seemed to cover everything.

Jyn helped Cassian unload everything that they had brought with them--including several jugs of fresh water. When he loaded those onto the ship she’d been curious and now she could see why. The people around them had begun to gather at the sight of the water.

“Water is a commodity on Tatooine.” Cassian explained quietly as they loaded everything onto an old hovercart. “I figured we could fetch a good price for it to insure that we have enough money for room and board.”

“Isn’t it wrong to sell water at such a high price to people who need it?” Jyn asked as they locked up the ship and paid the shipyard master out for the rest of the week.

“The people who need it the most would not be able to afford it no matter how low I make it.” Cassian replied with a sigh “Jyn I am not being cruel, Tatooine is a very different place than what you are used to. There is no central government and the Empire looks over it often.”

Jyn wanted to argue despite her rocky moral footing, but kept her mouth shut in hopes of bringing it up later. Instead she observed their surroundings as they headed further into the city of Mos Espa. They entered a marketplace where stalls lined either side of the road, it was similar to the market in Corellia except there were more people shouting and bartering for food and other goods.

Cassian set up shop at the end of the row of stalls, not bothering to unload the cart. Voices shouted over one another asking his price for the water and when Cassian replied with a price she could hear their hiss of shock. Then several came forward with money out for the taking and small containers for them to pour water into.

They were nearly finished emptying three of their jugs when a dust-caked woman approached with two children in tow. She was young, Jyn could see, only a few years older than she was. But deep lines stemmed out from her eyes and mouth, and her black hair had more than a few grays in it.

She held out money to Cassian who took it and moved to pour water for her. Jyn nearly opened her mouth to tell Cassian to return the money to the woman, surprised that he would take it from someone who needed it. But then her eyes caught sight of him quietly slipping the money back into her hands when he gave her back her container full of water. The woman looked like she was about to protest but Cassian just smiled and sent them on their way.

Jyn’s chest squeezed at the sight and she kicked herself for thinking that Cassian was being heartless in selling the water for such a high price.

They told water for the next twenty minutes until they were down to two jugs. “We will keep this for ourselves, we will need it.”

“Will we be staying on the ship?” Jyn asked as she helped him load the empty jugs back onto the cart.

“No I figured that you’d be itching to sleep anywhere but on that ship, how about renting a room?”

“A room?” Jyn asked, feeling a little stupid.

“Yes, a place where people go to sleep.” Cassian replied impishly as they rounded a corner into what looked like a residential area of Mos Espa.

“Thank you for your astute definition. I know what a room is. Do you think we will be here long enough for renting a room to be worth it?”

“I don’t know how long we will be here, but I do know that staying on the ship permanently will draw unwanted attention to us and I would like to blend in as much as possible.”

* * *

Jyn was awoken by the sound of the door opening the next morning. They’d finally found a room just as evening set in the night before--it was exorbitantly priced by a seedy looking alien that she’d never seen before but it featured two beds and a sturdy looking door. The best she slept in was by far the most comfortable thing she’d slept in since longer than she could remember and she’d fallen asleep almost instantly after a meal of dehydrated rations.

“Jyn wake up.” Cassian said as he threw open the shutters letting the light flood the room.

“Whats wrong?” She asked, groggily sitting up in bed. Cassian looked agitated as he paced the small width of the room.

“I should have noticed something when we were in Corellia… it was in our faces but it didn’t register with me until today.”

“What?” Jyn stood up and grabbed the sleeve of his shirt, stopping his pacing. “What happened?”

“It’s been three years.” Cassian’s voice belied his shock, “Actually over three years.”

“Three years since what?”

“Since Scarif. Since we died.”

Jyn sat down hard on the bed, her fingers still gripping Cassian’s sleeve.

“I was out in the marketplace this morning and someone was talking about the Empire and I made an enquiry and some old man launched into a story about the rebellion destroying the Deathstar.”

Jyn smiled hopefully, her chest expanding with hope. Could their mission have already been finished for them? If the Deathstar was gone, then what was there for them to do? But Cassian’s face was ashen causing a sick feeling to quickly replace her joy.

“They are rebuilding a second Deathstar--though thats only a rumor.” Cassian chuckled darkly, they’d had enough trouble with people thinking the first Deathstar was just a rumor.

“Do you think there is a failsafe in this one?”

“I doubt it. The rebellion is no match for the Empire, I hear that it’s scattered right now.”

Jyn sat on the bed trying to wrap her head around everything, the world had moved on so far without them and so much had happened. Where did they fit into this puzzle? After a moment Cassian sank down onto the bed next to her with his shoulders hunched.

Sensing his despondency she hesitantly reach out and slid her hand into his, contact that they’d avoided since leaving Lah’mu.

“The Force has a reason for us being here. There is still something we can do.” She said gently and when he didn’t reply she gave his hand a little squeeze “You know, someone once berated me quite soundly for not having any hope.”

Cassian smiled weakly and Jyn knew that if she’d been the one to discover their three year timeskip, that she’d probably be in the same state.

“Cheer up.” She knocked into him with her shoulder playfully, “You have more optimism and hope in your pinky finger than most people will in their entire lives and don’t forget that you fight in order to achieve that.”

“Really you think so?”

“Yes but if you tell anyone I told you that then I will deny it.” She stood up and they grinned at each other.

“Noted.”


	9. Chapter 9

**9**

**ki·lig**

_butterflies in one's stomach._

They sat around in their room for the next two days in hope that the Force would somehow magically show them the way. But on day three they were running low on funds and going completely stir crazy cooped up in the room.

“We need jobs.” Jyn stood up from the table where been sitting in silence like she had for most of that day. They’d run out of little stories to entertain one another last night and had lapsed into a fairly comfortable silence.

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” Cassian replied, he was lying face up in his bed and throwing a ball at the ceiling and catching it as it fell. “Cassian Andor and Jyn Erso died three years ago--it’s not like we could go up to someone and introduce ourselves.”

“Then we won’t use our real names. It’s not like they will check too thoroughly here anyways. We need a steady income until we figure out just what we need to do.”

“So you’ll be…?” Cassian asked, considering it.

“Lyra.” Jyn replied instantly, her mother’s name rolling off of her lips easily “It’s simple and easy to remember. What was your father’s name?”

“Raoul.”

“Raoul.” Jyn repeated, committing it to memory “That works for me.”

* * *

Three hours later Jyn was smugly grinning as they successfully both procured jobs at a restaurant, Jyn as a waitress and Cassian in the kitchen. The man who had hired them was named Omar, he was an extremely fat man who’s skin was so burned by sunburns that Jyn wasn’t sure if he’d ever been any other color. He wore a white shirt that had sweat stains in the pits and looked as if it had never been washed. Jyn instantly disliked him but was grateful that he’d given them both jobs.

“You.” He said pointing to Cassian, “Will work until this afternoon and you.” he nodded at Jyn “Will work until this evening.”

“I’ll wait for you once I’ve finished.” Cassian assured her.

“What’s your relationship anyways.” Omar asked suspiciously, squinting at them over the weatherbeaten desk in his tiny office. “Siblings?”

Cassian and Jyn looked at one another, Jyn didn’t want to say she was his sister--but that was the easiest thing.

“More like… companions.” Cassian finally said lamely and Jyn winced at how awkward that sounded.

“Hmph.” Omar grunted with a shrug “I don’t care. Don’t let it get in the way of your work and I don’t care if you are the Queen of Naboo and her secret lover.”

He then shuffled them out of the office and into the dining area where people were seated. Jyn was given a shirt that was entirely too tight and an apron to wear over her pants and Cassian was pushed in the direction of the kitchen.

“This here is Lyssa.” Omar introduced her to a nice looking young woman who waved her hand “I’ll leave you with her, Lyssa no idle chit chat I better see you two moving.” He then headed back into his office and slammed the door.

Lyssa grinned at her and ruffled her dark curly hair, “It’s good that you two came, the last two people ‘quit’ suddenly.” She put air quotes around those words, telling Jyn that they had probably been fired.

“Come on, Lyra right? I’ll show you the board where all of the clean dishes are. Omar likes to think of this place as ‘fine dining’ but it’s really just full of the merchants after they close their stalls and it’s anything but inspired company.” She chattered idly as she showed Jyn how to set the tables and take orders.

As they finished setting up the dining room Lyssa came really close to whisper conspiratorially, “So, who’s the guy you came in with? Is he your brother?”

“He’s not my brother!” Jyn said, probably with a little more force than was needed.

“So he’s your boyfriend?”

“No not that either he’s my… companion.” Jyn said with a sigh, having to use the word that he did.

“Hm. It’s a shame, he’s attractive.” Lyssa waggled her eyebrows at her and Jyn almost replied that she didn’t know what the girl was talking about when Omar poked his head out of his office and berated them for chattering.

Jyn moved away from Lyssa to finish putting out plates and looked over at the window that connected the dining room with the kitchen. Cassian stood in the window, nodding at whatever the cook said. His face was scruffier than when she’d first met him but his dark brown eyes were still visible. His hair was pulled back into an easy top knot so it would stay out of his face but a few gray hairs could be seen in it’s depths. He wasn’t that much older than Jyn, she knew that, but his years in the rebellion had aged him.

Yes, she supposed, Cassian was attractive. She’d never really had the chance to think about it and wasn’t sure she even wanted to pursue that thought any further than her initial observations.

Luckily she would have to think about that in that moment because Lyssa threw the doors open allowing their first patrons of the afternoon to filter in.

“You take this half of the tables and I will take the other.” Lyssa said leading the first group to their table.

Jyn looked at the group that was waiting and plastered her best smile onto her face, “Hello, welcome to Omars! Let me direct you to your table, how many?”

* * *

“Ouch!” Cassian’s voice filled the room causing Jyn to sit up sleepily.

It’d been three days since they’d begun to work at Omar’s and Jyn was usually too tired from work the night before to stay up past eating their late dinner.

“Sorry, go back to sleep.” Cassian said from the table as he dabbed at his face with a cloth.

A small bowl sat in front of him filled with a little bit of water and a razor was in his hand.

“Are you trying to shave?” She asked, swinging her legs over the side of the bed.

“Yes. Luggar said that I must in order to work in the kitchen. But unfortunately this room did not provide a mirror for me to use.”

Luggar was the cook who spent most of his time barking orders at Cassian, Jyn didn’t like him very much but Cassian told her that he reminded her of a general that he had once served under.

“Let me do it.” Jyn offered, pulling a chair up to sit a crossed from him and held out her hand for the razor.

“Have you ever shaved someone’s face before?” Cassian asked suspiciously.

“No, but how hard could it be? Besides it’s better than you doing it to yourself blind.” She had a point, Cassian thought as he grudgingly handed her the razor.

“Let me re-soap my face to get the hair standing on end.” He grabbed the soap from the bowl and lathered up his face.

“Just shave in the direction of the hair growth and it should be fine.” He crossed his fingers and she swatted at his shoulder.

She carefully began, taking her time as she didn’t want to accidentally cut open his face. With her empty hand she reached out and pushing his chin upwards so she could get a better angle.

Cassian watched her, a line between her brow forming as she focused on the task at hand. Her hair was messily pulled up into a ponytail, her bangs were pushed to the side on her forehead--probably by her pillow. Her face was so close to his that he could feel her breath on his face heat up as he thought about it.

“You alright?” Jyn asked as she rinsed the razor and started on the other half of his face.

“Yes. Fine.” Cassian replied quickly, a little embarrassed.

They sat in relative silence for the next few minutes, Jyn working diligently and Cassian trapped in his own thoughts.

“I think…” She said as she ran the razor along his jaw “I’m done.” She rinsed the razor again and leaned back to examine her handiwork.

“Not bad if I do say so myself.”

Cassian ran a hand over his smooth jaw “Not bad at all…”

Their eyes connected for a moment and they stared at one another, Jyn was surprised at how young Cassian looked without his scruff and Cassian was still amazed at their close proximity. They’d been closer than this before on Dagobah and again on Lah’mu but those had been times under distress--this was--something else.

“Well,” Jyn said breaking the silence as she stood “I guess I’ll just head back to bed…” She moved past him and he caught her hand in his own, swivelling in his chair and opening his mouth as if he were about to say something.

“Yes?” Jyn’s mouth felt dry as she said it. An intense pressure was forming under her collarbone and she didn’t know what to do next.

Cassian watched her squirm a little bit and sighed, “Nothing.” He let her hand slide from his own, “Goodnight, Jyn.”


	10. Chapter 10

**10**

**bron·tide**

_a low rumble of distant thunder._

The next morning when she woke up Cassian was gone. She vaguely remembered him telling her that he had an earlier shift the next morning--apparently there were supposed to have important reservations that day and he was needed to prep all of the food.

Jyn didn’t know what constituted ‘important’ on a planet like Tatooine, but she was told to look nice so she rolled out of bed and began brushing her hair out. It was getting long again, she would need to trim it before it got unmanageable.

An hour later Jyn stepped out of their room with her hair pulled up into a neat little chingon that she was surprised she’d been able to pull off. She checked her face in one of the darkened glass windows on her way to work and made a mental note to pick up a mirror on her way home that night.  
She was making a list in her head of things that they needed to do and purchase when the sound of a whip cracking brought her back to the present. Crossing the street ahead of her was a long line of people, their wrists and feet were shackled with heavy looking chains and their waists were connected by one long chain.

She’d seen this a few times since they’d arrived on Tatooine. Slaves, were one of Tatooine’s biggest exports. People who couldn’t afford to pay their bills or feed their families became indebted to people and in order to buy back their freedom they were forced into service.

“Get up!” One of the slave traders barked as a young woman stumbled in the line, jerking everyone with her as she fell. The whip went back and Jyn’s feet moved to do something, anything. But a hand caught her arm dragging her into an alleyway.

“Young lady those are dangerous waters to tread.” The person who grabbed her was an old man, standing barely an inch above her. He had white hair that was pulled into a neat ponytail and a mustache that twitched as he spoke.

“It’s not right.” Jyn argued looking around the corner, the woman had gotten back onto her feet and the group was moving again.

“There are plenty of things that aren’t right. It doesn’t mean that you can change them by yourself.”

“Sorry.” She muttered, not feeling very sorry at all.

“Uh-huh.” The old man chuckled, his wispy mustache moving as air left his mouth.

“Lyra is that you?” A voice called her mother’s name and she turned to see Lyssa hurrying towards them.

“Lyra is it?” The man’s eyebrows rose in disbelief “Funny you don’t look like a Ly--”

“Thank you very much, but I need to leave or I’ll be late for work.” Jyn hurried out of the alley to join Lyssa who was frowning as her.

“What were you doing with Cyrus?” She asked, linking her arm through Jyn’s.

“Oh,” Jyn shrugged nonchalantly “I got in the way of some slave traders and he pulled me to safety.” She didn’t say that she’d been about to confront them. Jyn had learned quickly that Lyssa didn’t think slavery was an odd thing and found it better not to bring it up.

“You should be more careful Lyra,” Lyssa scolded as they rounded the corner of the restaurant “They will take you and ask questions later.”

“I’m sorry I will be more careful, promise.” Jyn apologized “So you said that old man’s name was Cyrus?”

“Yes, he’s the archivist for Tatooine--we’ve only got one because, well there isn’t a whole lot to archive.” Lyssa said it like it was some sort of joke, but Jyn didn’t find it very funny.

“We better hurry or Omar is going to skin us alive.” Jyn ushered her forwards into the restaurant and hoped that Lyssa wouldn’t talk about what had happened that morning to Cassian--he was already paranoid enough as it was.

But luckily the restaurant was too busy all day for any idle chit chat and by the time that night finally fell Jyn was exhausted.

“Okay ladies, chip chop go clean yourselves up our reserved guests will be here in just a few moments.” Omar clapped his hands as if that would drive Jyn and Lyssa into motion.

As they dragged themselves to the nearby restroom Lyssa pulled Jyn close enough to whisper into her ear “These guys come in here once or twice a month, they are apparently close advisors to Jabba. Probably the closest thing we have to ‘civil servants’.” Lyssa spit the word out sarcastically as they washed their hands and wiped the sweat from their faces. “In reality they are a bunch of mobsters who come in here and get drunk and laze around for hours.”

“Do we have to stay here the whole time?” Jyn asked wearily as she smoothed her mussed hair, they’d been there since early that day and her shoulders and legs ached.

“Yes, but luckily Omar always opens the restaurant later in the afternoon after night’s like this.” Lyssa said cheerfully and Jyn watched as she undid the top two buttons on her blouse, when she noticed Jyn’s eyes she shrugged sheepishly “It gets me better tips, just watch out for the grabby hands and you should be fine.”

Jyn gaped at her coworker as she left the restroom, she wasn’t expected to do the same, was she? She looked down at her chest which wasn’t anything special, she’d never had the time or the energy to and all of the women that she’d encountered in Gererra’s rebel forces had been too battle hardened to worry about little things like that.

Jyn hesitantly undid the top two buttons of her own blouse and frowned when she didn’t achieve the same look that Lyssa had. She unbuttoned one of her buttons with a shrug and opened the bathroom to head out into the hall.

Cassian was waiting for her and one look at his clean-shaven face made her insides twist. She’d almost forgotten last night when he’d grabbed her hand almost as if to stop her but had let go. She’d wanted him to continue even if that meant something changing. But now that she wasn’t as close as she’d been she was grateful that he had let her go.  
Cassian cleared his throat “Luggar says that I can leave after the guests are served, but I will wait until you get off.”

“That could be hours I hear.” Jyn said drily. “Are you sure you want to hang around for that long?”

“Of course.”

Jyn smiled at that, feeling pleased despite her earlier thoughts.

“Lyra!” Lyssa’s voice called from the dining room as the sounds of voices filled the restaurant again.

“Gotta go, I’ll see you after!”

Jyn hurried into the dining room which they’d converted so that one long table took up the span of the room. Lyssa was leading tall brawny men into the room--several of them were human and the rest were varying kinds of alien. Jyn jumped in to help, pasting a gritty smile on her face.

The meal they were serving was a four course meal that started with soup. In reality it would have been easier to serve if there had been four of them, two taking either side of the table, but Jyn and Lyssa would have to do. Omar himself had taken a seat to the right of a stone face man with slicked back black hair, so he would be of no help.

Jyn scurried to ladle equal portions of the soup, which smelled like a mixture of different vegetables, while Lyssa followed behind her with the cart and the large pot of soup. They then hurried to pour water and alcohol in the men’s glasses, avoiding any hands that decided they wanted to pat some part of their body.

They made it through the first three courses of the meal without a hiccup, Lyssa was a good deflector of attention for Jyn who made a point in avoiding eye contact with the many men in the restaurant.

Cassian had taken a seat on the floor in the hallway, she could feel his watchful eyes on her as she refilled yet another cup of alcohol.

“This one’s a new one isn’t she?” the man whose cup she was filling asked.

“Yep.” Omar nodded “She’d a pretty one isn’t she?”

“Quite a bit tinier than your usual waitresses.” Another man piped up “And not your usual type eh Linux?” he teased the original man who had spoken.

“True I do like women with fuller figures, but wiry one’s like this lady here can be just as adventurous in bed and twice as crazy.” He waggled his eyebrows at her and Jyn’s face flamed as she hurried away from the table to help Lyssa with the next course.

“It’s ok.” Lyssa murmured, noticing Jyn’s distress “I’ll take that side of the table if you want.”

“It’s fine.” Jyn replied through gritted teeth.

Lyssa shrugged and turned back to the crowd, planting a cheerful smile on her face as she brandished her pitcher full of beer “Alright fellas who's ready for another round of beer!”

Jyn did her best to ignore Linux’s gaze on her back as she served what looked to be some kind of roasted bird to the table.

As she served his food Linux grinned up at her “C’mere.” He said looping an arm around her waist and drawing her onto his lap, much to the amusement of his dining companions who laughed like it was the funniest thing that they had seen.

Jyn was just reaching for his fingers, fully intending to bend them backwards until he released her when Cassian’s voice cut through the laughter.

“You are going to let her go,” He had stood up from his place in the hallway and was calmly standing a few feet away “Please.” He added almost as an afterthought.

“And what are you going to do to me if I don’t?” Linux sized Cassian up and smirked, obviously taking the man at first glance. He stood, dragging Jyn with him, his hand moving to cup her butt and causing her to jump. Luckily it wasn’t there for long, Cassian moved lightning fast and his fist connected with the man’s jaw and sent him sprawling to the floor.

Everyone was silent now, Lyssa was standing off to the side with wide eyes and Omar had stood at the beginning of the confrontation.

“You’re fired.” He said, his face slowly turning red “Both of you. I had better not catch you coming in here or I won’t be this nice.”

Cassian opened his mouth to speak but Jyn pushed him towards the door. She needed to get him out of there before he caused any more trouble.

* * *

“What the hell was that for?” She berated him once they’d gotten a safe distance from the restaurant “I had it under control!”

“It did not look like it from where I was sitting.” Cassian was just as angry as she was.

“Well I did. I always have everything under control by myself.”

“Is that why when we found you you were in prison?” He scoffed.

“That is besides the point--”

“And also, don’t think I didn’t notice the button. Why the hell would you unbutton your shirt especially in front of men like that?”

“It was just one button, it’s not like I have a whole hell of a lot to hide anyways. Besides Lyssa made it seem like the thing to do. Where do you get off telling me what to do and why do you even care so much?” She was embarrassed that he had noticed the button, her fingers moved up to deftly slide it through it’s hole and back into it’s proper place.

Cassian didn’t seem to have an answer to her question and Jyn wanted to smack him. Instead she whirled away from him, fully intending to stomp back to the room.

But Cassian managed to grab her hand and turn her back to face him, his face was unreadable now--all of the anger behind his brown eyes was gone--only to be replaced with something else that Jyn couldn’t quite place.

“What are you doing?” She asked, confused by the sudden change in their argument.

“This.” He replied and kissed her.


	11. Chapter 11

**11**

**trou·vaille**

_a chance encounter with something wonderful_

Jyn didn’t know if she was more surprised by the sudden turn in their interaction, from fighting to kissing, or the fact that she wasn’t surprised that he had kissed her and was still kissing her. After a moment his lips drew away from hers. He took a step back from her, the hard line of his jaw working underneath the skin. She could see his face turning red underneath his warm brown skin and she knew her face was probably also as red as his.

“That.” He bit out the word “Is why I care so much.”

They walked home in silence after that, both too wrapped up in their own thoughts to talk any further. Cassian walked a few paces ahead of her, berating himself. He’d acted like an idiot teenager and he knew it. Jyn had been doing her job, an unappealing and impossible job but her job nonetheless. He should have just bit the inside of his cheek and let her handle it.

But watching that meaty idiot paw at her like it didn’t matter made his blood boil for reasons that he was only just figuring out.

It wasn’t as if he’d never felt that way about another person, he’d had his fair share of experience as a pilot with the resistance. When you throw a bunch of young teenage orphans together into training it was bound to happen. But Jyn was someone he hadn’t even trusted when he’d first met her just over two months ago--though he guessed he could add three more years to that.

He’d felt the first stirrings of… something… on Scarif when they rode the elevator down from the communications tower and she’d looked up at him with a triumphant smile. Even though they’d been almost certainly about to die. Even though all of their comrades were dead. They’d won.

Cassian had wanted to kiss her then but had resisted, that would have just made him even more regretful for the things that he couldn’t do in his lifetime. Then, when they’d woken up on Dagobah, he’d pushed those feelings into the back of his mind and wrote them off as desperation in the face of death.

But then she kept surprising him as they made their way off of Dagobah and Lah’mu and the feelings he had locked away had begun to peek out.

“I’m going to bed.” He told her, shaking away his heavy thoughts as they entered their room, not bothering to turn on the lights.

Jyn nodded and headed over to her bed, pulling pins out of her hair and letting it fall free just underneath her shoulders. Cassian watched the brown tendrils swish in the dim darkness and kicked himself for wanting to reach out and touch them. He’d been really good at resisting his urges or at least he thought that he had.

“Goodnight Jyn.” His voice was almost inaudible and he almost thought she hadn’t heard him.

“Wait.” She said, speaking for the first time since he’d kissed her.

“I’m not very good at this sort of thing,” She admitted, turning to face him “But I’m not mad that you kissed me.”

Cassian could not have been more surprised, not even if the entire Rebel alliance had walked through the door at that very moment. “You don’t?”

She shook her head, redness returning to her cheeks. “I don’t want anything to be awkward between us… I like you and I’m starting to like you in that way--which is something i’ve never had to deal with before.”

“I’m patient Jyn.” Cassian’s words surprised him, he should apologize for kissing her despite the fact that he didn’t feel very sorry.

“Well, good.” Jyn said, her smile lighting up her features. She took a step towards him and pressed a dainty kiss into his lips. “Thats payback for surprising me. Now we’re even.”

Cassian stood in shock and watched her head into the bathroom and change into her baggy sleep clothing and climb into bed. Somehow she’d gotten the upperhand on him. Later he lay awake staring at the ceiling and listened to her soft snoring, a stupid grin plastered firmly on his face.

* * *

The next day their easy friendship was restored, but with a little something more than it had been the day before. They headed out together, each munching on half a sandwich that they’d purchased from the deli. They needed to find new jobs but everyone they asked quickly turned them away.

“I wonder if Omar spread the word to the other business owners.” Cassian frowned, feeling guilty for losing them their first jobs.

“It probably wasn’t a good idea to insult the local mobsters.”

“I already said I was sorry for that how many times do I have to apologize.” He groaned in exasperation.

“Mmm like four more times maybe?” Jyn teased cheekily. “But really there has to be someone who will hire us or our funds will be depleted soon, what with paying for shipyard rent and the room’s rent, not to mention food. If this keeps up I might have to resort to… older ways.”

Cassian’s jaw hardened, “That’s too risky. We are going to be here for longer than a few days so the chances of you getting caught go up.”

“I know that but if thats what I need to do in order for us to stay afloat until whatever it is that we need to do happens then I will.” She argued back.

They bickered back and forth as they stopped into various shops and asked if the owners needed any help.

They had stopped into their fifth shop and were just leaving when Lyssa walked in carrying a wicker basket “Lyra!” She said with surprise.

“Lyssa, hey.” Jyn greeted the other woman sheepishly “Look I’m sorry about last night.”

“Oh psh don’t even worry about it, you’d be surprised how often that happens. Linux is a creep who has problems keeping his hands to himself. Though it didn’t help that your boyfriend knocked his brains out. I’d just avoid those guys for a while if I were you.”

Jyn and Cassian both blushed and looked away from each other, causing Lyssa to stop her babbling and look back and forth between the both of them.

“Ah!” She said, her eyes lighting up “I see there has been some progress on that front has there? Well it’s about time you two stopped eyeballing one another and actually did something.” Lyssa gushed.  
“Uh thanks,” Jyn cleared her throat and urged her body to stop blushing “Say do you think that there is anywhere hiring at the moment? Everyone has told us no so far…”

Lyssa’s face fell, “Omar blackballed you guys huh? Yeah he tends to do that--man the last girl he fired had to sell herself to Jabba in order to survive…”

Jyn and Cassian exchanged a horrified look but Lyssa continued on “But you two probably won’t have to do that! You are resourceful and oh! I’ve just had an idea, he usually wouldn’t hire anyone but he seemed to like you.”

“Who?”

“Cyrus!”

“Who?” Cassian asked turning towards Jyn who shrugged, shooting daggered looks in Lyssa’s direction.

“You know, the guy who helped you out the other day when you got in the way of those traders.” Lyssa replied, oblivious to Jyn’s look.

“He runs the archives, right?” Jyn asked, not looking at Cassian who was examining her face closely.

“Yeah, I can take you two over there right now--I don’t start work until tonight and I know Cyrus.” Lyssa jabbered on as she led them through the marketplace and towards the center of the city where the richest lived. The homes were still made of clay here but were painted white giving them an airy feel. Cobblestone replaced packed dirt and green succulents lined the path.

“This is the prettiest place in Mos Espa. I want to live here someday.” Lyssa, ever the romantic, gushed as they passed an ornate gate with gold leaf on it. To Jyn it looked ridiculous, it was an over display of wealth in a city that was rimmed by the poor who, in order to pay for their family’s survival, sold themselves into slavery.

But Jyn held her tongue, Lyssa didn’t understand how strange Tatooine was for them and she didn’t know where they came from and that they fought against this sort of thing. She chanced a glance at Cassian and one look at his face told her he felt the same about their opulent surroundings.

“Okay! We’re here!” They were standing in front of a pair of plain brown gates, two rustic rings hung in the center waiting to be pulled so that the doors could open. The building had originally been white but had faded over the years into a dull mixture of brown, white and yellow. The plants around the building had all but died and if they could talk they looked as if they were crying out for one last drink of water.

Lyssa bounced on the balls of her feet and reached out to grab one of the rings, “Welcome, to the Mos Espa Archives!”


	12. Chapter 12

**12**

**fris·son**

_a sudden strong feeling of excitement or fear; a thrill._

The first thing Jyn noticed upon walking into the courtyard of the Mos Espa archives was that it would be opulent if it had been taken care of. Two faded gilt fountained sat on either side of their path and they looked as if they had never been turned on. More shrivelled, dead plants lined the face of the building and two windows sat on either side of the large tarnished metal door. The windows were so caked with dust that Jyn probably would not have been able to see inside even if she pressed her face to the glass.

Lyssa led them down the path and pressed on a panel next to the door and it slid open with a rough scraping noise. Cassian and Jyn exchanged an incredulous look before following Lyssa into the dustiest place that they’d ever been in.

The inside looked more like a hoarder’s home than an archive. Boxes were piled up to the ceiling, no doubt filled with disk drives.

“Are you sure about this Lyss?” Jyn asked as they were led down an extremely narrow passageway to the back of the building.

“Of course!” She rounded a corner of boxes and called out “Cyrus! Where are you at?”

The sound of boxes crashing greeted them and they hurried towards the noise. A pile of boxes sat in the way and underneath them two slippered feet could be seen.

“Help!” gasped a voice and they jumped into action, pulling the boxes off of the old archivist and stacking them as neatly as they could. After they had finally unearthed him the wiry old man jumped to his feet and greeted them with a grin.

“Well if it isn’t the lovely, but stupid, young lady who I helped the other day!” He reached out and gave Jyn’s hand an erratic pump before turning towards Cassian.

“Ah,” He held his hand out and Cassian took it, albeit reluctantly “I knew someone like this must have a white knight following her around, nice to meet you I am Cyrus the illustrious archivist for Mos Espa and the rest of Tatooine actually.”

Jyn opened her mouth to correct him but the old man was already moving on, “What can I help you with today?”

Lyssa nudged Jyn with her elbow, prodding her to speak. “Uh we were wondering if you had any available jobs?”

“Ah so Omar has made it so no one will hire you eh?” Cyrus cackled before turning and trotting down the pathway gesturing for them to follow “Come on you lot, I don’t have all day. That will be all for you Lyssa my dear you are free to go.”

Jyn waved goodbye to the other woman who began to navigate her way back to the front door before following them.

“Now I know this looks a little overwhelming, but I’ll tell you I inherited this position ten years ago and I like to think I’ve made quite a bit of progress on it!”

“Ten years? I am afraid to ask what it looked like before.” Cassian whispered in Jyn’s ear and she fought back laughter.

“I don’t usually get buried under the boxes, it only happens a few times a month. I spend most of my time back here.” They entered a small room that was also packed with boxes, but these were newer and neatly pushed up against the wall. A large table and a lamp sat in the middle of the room and various disk drives were spread out a crossed the table.

“Now, what I do is I go through these many, many boxes and categorize the information inside. I then input this into that computer over there,” He blindly gestured to an old dusty machine that was built into the wall. “Once you do that you can place it in that slot there and it will archive it for you.”

He showed them by inserting a disk into the slot.

“Where does it go from there?” Jyn asked curiously.

“In here,” He opened a door and Jyn peered inside. The room was long and reminded her of the archives on Scarif. Long mechanical arms worked tirelessly, moving disk drives into their proper places.

“This is a relatively new thing for this planet, that is why there are so many boxes because the old archivist was an idiot who couldn’t file a damn thing.”

“So… does this mean that we’ve got a job?” Cassian looked hopeful.

“Well obviously young man, why would I explain anything to you otherwise? I warn you the pay is next to nothing and the hours are long. But you will have a place to sleep and food in your bellies. You can also dock your ship right here at the archives.”  
“Ship? How did you know that we have a ship?” She asked looking at Cassian whose shoulder’s had gone taut with tension.

“I know a great many things, Jyn Erso.”

* * *

Jyn’s chest seized with panic as Cassian took a step in front of her pulling out his blaster, which he usually kept hidden away, and pointed it at Cyrus.

“Calm down Cassian Andor, I’m not going to tell anyone your little secret.” Cyrus didn’t seem concerned by the gun in Cassian’s hand, instead he turned and began rustling through a box that was sitting on the table.

“Stop what you are doing immediately.” Cassian ordered.

“Oh hush I’m not getting my own gun, I don’t even own one of those.” He said as he turned around, a disk drive in his hands. He slipped it into a viewing screen that sat on the table and flipped a few switches.

An image of Jyn was projected onto the wall, a picture from when she was first taken into the rebellion. She looked angry and tired and there was a hard edge in her eyes. Cyrus pressed a button and the image changed to Cassian who was grinning into the camera, standing next to several other pilots.

“This is a report from over three years ago--it was broadcasted by the rebellion after the first Death Star was destroyed. Many places didn’t get it but I did. Go ahead and read it.”

Jyn took a few hesitant steps forward and began to read the report.

‘Deathstar destroyed thanks to the bravery of Rogue One. The rebellion needs more soldiers like the brave men and women who made this possible.’

“It’s a recruitment broadcast.” Cassian murmured from behind her. Jyn nodded, as she read the names of everyone who was with them on Scarif, including their own.

“It’s really strange to read one’s own name on a in memoriam letter.” Jyn said with surprise.

Cyrus cleared his throat, reminding them that he was still there. “I don’t want to know how you two are still alive. It will probably give me a philosophical migraine. But I do know that attracting the attention of Mobsters like Linux is a bad idea. You both need to lay low and hopefully working here will keep you out of trouble.”

“Why are you helping us?” Cassian asked suspiciously.

“My father was a part of the rebellion and lets just say I take after him.” Cyrus gave them a mysterious smile before clapping his hands, “Okay you two need to go collect your things and your ship and be back here before nightfall so that we can get started! It’s been a while since I’ve had more than two hands to work with.”

Later, as they walked back to the ship with their things in tow Jyn shook her head in disbelief “I can’t believe it was that easy to identify us.”

“It should be fine. Only someone as crazy as Cyrus would put two and two together. Everyone knows that it is impossible to survive and explosion like that.”

“And yet here we are.”


	13. Chapter 13

**13**

**lim·er·ence**

_the state of being infatuated or obsessed with another person._

Later on that night Jyn lay in her bed staring at the ceiling, she’d been given a tiny little room that was downstairs. The only thing in it was a small vanity and a slender trundle bed. But there was a mirror, which was a luxury that she hadn’t had before in the room they’d rented.

Cassian had been dragged up stairs by Cyrus, “You don’t mind sharing with an old man like me, right? For Propriety’s sake.” He’d said and cackled at the younger man’s reluctance.

Jyn hadn’t slept separately from Cassian ever since she’d woken up on Dagobah after they’d died on Scarif. She was used to his soft snoring and propensity to roll over several times in his sleep until he’d found a comfortable position. So now, in the distinct silence of being alone, she couldn’t sleep.

She was about to get up and wander through the archives until she felt tired when three soft taps on her door drew her attention. She got out of bed and pressed the panel and the door slid open to reveal Cassian standing there sheepishly.

“Couldn’t sleep?” She asked and stepped aside to let him enter.

“No, not really. Old man Cyrus snores louder than the loudest ship in the Alliance.” He joked, suddenly aware of just how cramped Jyn’s quarter’s were.

“Maybe we should go out into the archives.” He suggested and Jyn laughed. “What?”

“It’s just silly that you are uncomfortable now just because the room is small. It’s adorable really.” Jyn teased “Come on don’t get shy on me now.” She plopped down onto the bed and patted the spot next to her.

Cassian sat down with a sigh and Jyn smiled triumphantly. “I wonder how long we will be here.” He finally mused aloud after a few minutes of comfortable silence.

Jyn shrugged “I don’t know. I still have no idea what it is that we are supposed to do… besides I kind of like it here at the archives.”

“Really? The dust made you sneeze all night and I’m pretty sure Cyrus is crazier than he lets on.” Cassian asked surprised.

“He isn’t that bad, he’s ah… quirky. But he’s nice. Besides I think I like it so much because it finally feels safe--no one really comes here and we have the ship right outside if we need to leave.”

“True.” Cassian hadn’t thought of it that way, he gave Jyn a sideways glance and she was staring into the mirror that was mounted onto the vanity. “What are you thinking about?”

“Just how different I look from that picture from when I was captured by the Alliance.”

“Well you are different,” Cassian said in a matter-of-fact sort of way, “You learned to trust someone other than yourself and you fought for a cause. When I first met you you were perfectly happy just keeping your head down.”

“And now I’m not?” She asked turning to face him, her hazel-green eyes meeting his deep brown.

“No. You’re not. You are a new person Jyn Erso.” He reached out and took her hand in his and gave it a squeeze.

Jyn smiled and leaned in, gently pressing her lips to his. It was a gesture that was still new to her but she knew she must have been doing something right because she felt his lips part under hers. She put her hands on either side of his neck and his hands found their way to either side of her waist and drew her closer.

After a few moments they broke apart, breathing heavily. Cassian pressed his forehead to hers and let out a shaky laugh “You are going to be the death of my self control Jyn.”

They didn’t kiss anymore after that, instead they lay back in her bed together. Cassian pulled the fluffy blankets up to their shoulders and Jyn lay her head on his chest and listened to the thump thump of his heart beat.

Later, Cassian would rise before the sun came up and would give her a drowsy kiss which she returned half-asleep before heading quietly up the stairs to the room he shared with Cyrus.

* * *

They fell into a routine over the next couple of weeks, the mornings were spent filling their study room with dusty boxes that were ready to be looked through. Then Cassian would make lunch for the three of them as neither Cyrus nor Jyn had any real affinity for cooking. After that there was a rest period where Cyrus would often doze off in his chair for a quick nap and Cassian and Jyn would head out into the dilapidated garden that was quickly becoming their own personal oasis.  
Jyn would lay on the cobbled sandstone and stare up at the blue sky while Cassian worked on something or other in the ship.

Then they would head back inside and spend the rest of the afternoon going through boxes and inputting their data into the system before letting the filing machine do it’s work.

Then at night, every night like clockwork, Cassian would show up downstairs in Jyn’s room and she would let him in every night. Sometimes they kissed, as that was as far as Cassian would go despite Jyn’s growing frustration, and other times they would lay together and just talk.

They’d long run out of stories from their childhoods and Jyn didn’t know if it was because there wasn’t a whole lot to tell or if they just spent that much time together. They’d often fall asleep talking but Cassian was always careful to rise before dawn, give her a kiss and head back upstairs.

Wash, rinse and repeat.

One afternoon, about three weeks after they had arrived at the archives Jyn was helping Cassian unearth a box when Lyssa popped her head into the room and gave Jyn a little wave.

“Lyra! It’s been a while, I was wondering if you wanted to grab some lunch with me?”

“Sure I ah…” Jyn watched Cassian’s face change to instantly cautious.

“Oh come on Raoul.” Lyssa said giving him a playful punch in the arm “I’ll have her there and back before you can say ‘where is Lyra’.”

“I’ll be fine, I’ll be back in an hour--two tops.”

“Let the girl go.” Cyrus said from the back “You’ll get more work without her distracting you anyways.”

Cassian felt his face warm and Jyn grinned at him and stood on her tip toes and gave him a quick peck on the cheek before hurrying to join Lyssa.

Cassian watched them go, a conflicted and worried feeling filling his gut. But he shook it off and turned back to his boxes.

* * *

“That was delicious!” Lyssa gushed as they walked back to the inner city.

“Yes thank you for paying for me--you didn’t have to.”

“It’s not problem Lyra I know that Cyrus probably pays you next to nothing.”  
“You know, I thought you’d be upset with me about the drama at Omar’s.” Jyn remarked as they rounded the corner.

“It hasn’t been easy,” Lyssa admitted, her normally relaxed features tightening “But Omar hired a new girl and she’s learning very quickly.”

“Still I am sorry, I never would want things to be hard for you Lyssa. You are one of the first friends i’ve made here.”

Lyssa’s face contorted then, surprising Jyn with the conflicted expressions that the woman next to her was making. Lyssa seemed to come to a decision and she grabbed Jyn’s hand.

“You need to run.” She whispered quickly.

“What? Lyssa what’s going on?” Jyn asked, confused by the sudden change in the other woman’s attitude.

“I’m sorry Lyra. They told me they would sell me if I didn’t get you out here by yourself. I didn’t want to but--” Suddenly Lyssa was jerked away from Jyn with a yelp.

“Thats enough out of you.” A gruffly familiar voice growled at the now crying Lyssa. Linux stood before Jyn with Lyssa dangling from one meaty hand, Lyssa’s fingers scrabbled at his fingers trying to alleviate the pressure on her throat.

Jyn turned to run but men had surrounded her, she reached down in hopes of finding her blaster and immediately cursed herself for forgetting it at the archives. Jyn looked right and then left, before deciding that a metal bar jutting out several feet above them would have to do.

She coiled her muscles and jumped at the wall, launching off of it and caught the bar in her two hands and pulled herself up. She perched there like a cat, looking down at them as she planned her next moved--she could probably get onto the roof from here and make her escape.

The men looked at one another as if they couldn’t believe it and aimed their blasters at her.

“Hold on there sweetheart.” Linux said with a chuckle “You wouldn’t want me to hurt your little friend now would you?”

“Why should I care?” Jyn asked “She turned me into you lot.”

Linux grinned up at her and squeezed, Lyssa gasped as her eyes bugged out of her head. Jyn cursed under her breath.

“Stop.” She finally said, her shoulders slumping. It didn’t matter if Lyssa had turned her in, the woman didn’t deserve to be tortured.

Jyn dropped down to the ground in defeat and was immediately struck over the back of the head by the butt of a blaster.

As darkness closed in around her she heard Linux dropping coins into someone’s palm, “She’s a pretty one. Perfect for Jabba’s palace don’t you think?”

“I think she will do nicely.” said the unseen voice.

“Sir what should we do about this one?” Called one of the mercenaries.

“Eh. Get rid of her somewhere we don’t need her.” This was followed by the sound of a blaster going off.

Then everything went black.


	14. Chapter 14

**14**

**du·bi·ous**

_fraught with uncertainty or doubt._

Cassian made his way through the streets of Mos Espa, his footsteps getting more and more frantic by the moment. He’d been so caught up in his work that when Cyrus had tapped him on the shoulder and told him that Jyn had been gone for more than two hours, he hadn’t even realized it.

How could he have not noticed that she was gone for so long? He’d figured out where they had eaten lunch and the owner of the restaurant had just shrugged and said that he’d served them an hour or so ago and that they’d headed north, bath towards the center of Mos Espa and the archives.

So now he was walking up and down the streets, hesitantly calling out her name.

“Raoul.” A quiet voice spoke up from one of the alleyways and for a moment his heart leaped with hope, only to plummet down to the bottom of his stomach when he turned into the alleyway to find Lyssa laying on the ground surrounded by blood.

“What happened?” He asked, alarmed as he skidded onto his knees next to her and immediately realized she’d been shot several times.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” The woman babbled as he tried to press his hands to the wounds that were sluggishly bleeding still--which wasn’t a good sign.  
“Just tell me what happened.” Cassian soothed, but felt his jaw harden as she gasped out what had happened. He knew that that bastard from the restaurant would come back to haunt them.

“I’m sorry I didn’t have any other choice.” Lyssa wiped at her cheeks weakly with a bloody hand, leaving a trail of blood on her face.

Cassian wanted to leave her there to bleed out, she’d come to the archives as a friend to Jyn and had betrayed her. But he could already hear Jyn’s voice in his head scolding him for even thinking like that. It was almost funny to him because Jyn had never been so self-sacrificing before he’d met her.

So instead of leaving Lyssa there he picked her up as gently as he could and carried her through the city, avoiding the main streets and overly sunny roads. By the time he made it back to the archives he was sweaty, covered in blood and out of breath.

Cyrus rushed out to meet him, his face ashen with concern. “What happened?”

Cassian told him in clipped tones as he laid the young woman down on the table which Cyrus rushed to clear.

He turned to leave but Lyssa reached out and grabbed his sleeve, “They said something about Jabba the Hutt.” She gasped as Cyrus cut her shirt open in order to look at her wounds “They thought I was dead already but I heard them.”

Her eyes seemed to grow heavy after that as she lost consciousness “Probably for the best,” Cyrus said as he worked “It will be extremely painful for her from her on out.”

“Will she live?”

“It’s hard to say.” Cyrus patted the woman’s soft black hair “I met her when she was just a little girl. Her mother was a slave who worked her entire life so that she could live as a free woman. When she died I just kind of took over.”

Watching the fatherly look that overtook Cyrus’s features, Cassian had to turn away. Anger churned in his gut. Anger at the woman who had sold out Jyn, anger at the slave traders but mostly anger at himself--for forgetting that they were in fact in danger.

He washed the blood off of his body and changed, his movements were robotic as he prepped his blaster.

He didn’t know how much time passed from there but when Cyrus stepped into the room looking tired he assumed that it was more than an hour.

“Where is Jabba the Hutt’s base located?” He asked as he holstered his gun.

“Jabba the Hutt is not somebody you want to mess with Cassian. He’d our de facto leader and the sole reason why the slave trade is so strong here.”

“It does not matter.” Cassian moved past the old man.

“If you will hold on for a moment I may be able to help you.” Cyrus disappeared into the archives and Cassian nearly followed him but he decided to sit in the work room and watch over Lyssa, who was heavily bandaged but sleeping almost peacefully on the table.

A few minutes later Cyrus reappeared, disks filling his arms. “It has to be one one of these.”

He inserted them into the computer and flipped through them until he found what he was looking for “Ah-hah!” He hooted triumphantly and moved aside so Cassian could see what he’d found.

“I knew I had this lying around somewhere, these are the blueprints to Jabba the Hutt’s palace. It should help you get in, get Jyn and get out. It’s not much but--”

Cassian cut him off and pulled the older man into a hug, “Thank you.”

Cyrus gave him an awkward pat “Now get out of here and go get our girl back.”

* * *

Jyn was lying somewhere cool and damp, her head was pounding and she let out a little groan as she came back to full consciousness.

“Looks like you are awake.” A voice echoed through wherever they were and Jyn forced her eyes open.

The room they were in was craggy with sharp stalagmites hanging from the ceiling. The floor was relatively smooth and Jyn followed it all the way over to the glowing bars. She was in some sort of prison. But who was in there with her?

Sitting up she pressed a hand to her forehead before following the curve of the cell to a form sitting against one of the walls. She was wearing all black and had her knees drawn up to her chest, a sullen expression was plastered on her pretty face. She would have looked dainty and fragile except she held her shoulders in a stiffly proud position.

“Who are you?” Jyn asked as she propped herself up against the curved wall of the cell, her body still feeling weak from whatever drug they’d used.

“I should be asking you that.” The woman said, her brown eyes narrowing with suspicion.

Jyn nearly rolled her eyes, “Lyra.” She pointed at herself as she were talking to a child.

“... Leia.” The woman finally introduced herself and sat up straight. “So why did they throw you in here?”

Leia had been stubbornly sitting in silence until they’d thrown the limp form of another woman into her cell. She’d watched the other girl sleep and for some reason the girl’s face looked familiar. But when she’d introduced herself as Lyra it didn’t ring any bells for her. But at that moment Leia was just glad to have some company.

“I was ‘sold’ into slavery I guess you could say.” Jyn’s voice was overly sarcastic “I worked at a restaurant for a while and pissed off a customer.”

“I hate this planet.” Leia said with disgust, “This backwater hell-hole has no redeeming features.”

“I have to agree with you. So why are you in here?”

“I was breaking out a friend.” Leia explained, but Jyn heard the catch in the other woman’s voice on the word friend.

“Did it work?”

“What do you think?” Leia’s voice was sharp and Jyn winced.

“Sorry, stupid question.”

They sat in silence after that Jyn fiddling with her kyber crystal under her shirt.

“What is glowing under your shirt?” Leia moved from her side of the cell as Jyn held up her crystal.

“My mother gave it to me.”

“You can make it glow? Does that mean you are Force sensitive?” Leia peppered her with questions.

“Ah no--well maybe--something like that.”

Jyn didn’t need to explain herself further because the sounds of heavy footsteps abruptly cut off their conversation. Jyn shoved her necklace back into her shirt and they scooted away from one another.

“I’ll help you if you help me.” Leia whispered as the bars disappeared. Jyn couldn’t answer her but nodded.

“Quiet in here.” A voice barked as a man stepped into the cell, flanked by several guards.

They didn’t say anything else, just bound Leia’s hands and tugged her from the room, Leia turned back to look at Jyn and gave her a resolute nod. The woman’s features didn’t show any of the fear that she was sure to be feeling and Jyn envied her--she wished that she could carry herself the way that the other woman did.

After she was gone and the bars had flickered back to life Jyn pulled her knees up to her chest and sighed. She was alone. She idly wondered if Cassian knew she was missing yet and whether or not he was going to come after her.

She didn’t have a long time with her own thoughts because the guards returned for her and chained her hands together before half dragging her down the hall. They deposited her into a room and some clothes were thrown at her.

“Change.” One of the guards growled. Jyn opened her mouth and spit at him. The guard wiped the spittle away from his face and growled “If you are not changing in the next thirty seconds I will come in here and change you.”

Then the door was slammed. Jyn reluctantly took off her pants and shirt, giving her brown jacket one last caress before pulling on a brown dress. It was different from what she’d seen other slaves wear when they were working in Mos Espa. It was lighter and less bulky.

“Are you ready?” the guard didn’t knock and instead just entered. Jyn barely had time to hide her crystal in her shirt. She was glad she’d already pulled the dress on, because the guard looked disappointed at the fact that he couldn’t dress her himself. Disgust slimed Jyn’s gut as she was tugged from the room.

She didn’t know how she was going to escape yet but she would be damned if she didn’t try.


	15. Chapter 15

**15**

**en·deav·or**

_try hard to do or achieve something._

She was given a heavy gold platter and was tugged into some sort of throne room, it was dim and what light there was shone through slatted windows. She could see the dust flying through the air and she bit back a cough as she was laden with heavy goblets.

“Go serve and keep your mouth shut if you want to keep your tongue.” The guard said and detached the chain leash from her cuffed wrists and shoved her to the wolves.

The room was full of people milling around and chatting in different languages. They ignored Jyn, taking their drinks and downing them before slamming them back onto the platter. Jyn barely managed to keep the platter steady as she moved through the throngs of people, making notes of all of the doors and windows. She was dismayed to realize that they were still somewhere underground and escape would not be easy. Besides, she’d promised Leia that she would help her get free.

She was just wondering where the other woman was when the room fell silent as two large doors slid open and a large platform was rolled in. On the platform was one of the ugliest aliens that Jyn had ever seen. It was mounds of shapeless flesh and two snake-like eyeballs. She was so busy trying to process what he was that she almost didn’t see the woman lying on the pillows against him.

She bit back a gasp of shock as she realized that it was the woman she’d just seen less than an hour ago--dressed in an uncomfortable looking metal outfit that showed more than it covered. A thick metal collar was snapped around her neck and the chain was held by what Jyn know realized was the alien’s arm.

A gold droid stiffly walked in the room after the platform and stood behind him as the alien began speaking in a garbled language that Jyn barely recognized. The droid slowly translated the words that the alien was saying but Jyn was barely listening as a wookie and a man were dragged into the room followed by a younger man who looked a little worse for wear.

“Han!” the younger one gasped.

“Luke!” the other replied, they looked extremely happy to see one another and exchanged a couple of lighthearted comments that Jyn thought were hardly appropriate for the situation but it made her feel better all the same.

They asked about Leia and she piped up from her place on the pillows; “Here.” But was instantly tugged back into silence.

The room rumbled and suddenly they were flying. Jyn didn’t know how big the ship that they were on was--she was still trying to get used to being above ground again. She leaned against a wall with her empty platter for a moment and realized her mistake a moment later.

“Get back to work.” Her guard shoved her roughly forwards and she landed on the hard metal floor with a thump before scrambling back to her feet.

“Lord Hutt wishes for a drink.” He said before plunking a large gold and glass goblet on her tray full of some sort of brown liquid. The smell made Jyn nauseous but she inched her way over to the platform.

She looked down at her tray, only allowing herself to look up to look at Leia who was staring intensly at a bounty hunter. Once she made it to the alien’s side and held the tray up for him she finally made contact with Leia who blinked at her with shock before her face became impassive again.

The goblet was snatched from her tray and she wanted nothing more than to scurry away from him but forced herself to remain by his side as he drank the murky liquid.

Jyn was still trying to figure out just how they were going to get out of this situation and hoping that Leia would hold up her end of the bargain if they did.

Jabba began speaking again and the droid hurried to translate: “Oh, dear. His High Exaltedness, the great Jabba the Hutt, has decreed that you are to be terminated immediately.”

Jyn listened to the man--Han--quip a snarky response about hating long waits but the droid continued:

“You will therefore be taken to the Dune Sea and cast into the pit of Carkoon, the nesting place of the all-powerful Sarlacc. In his belly, you will find a new definition of pain and suffering, as  
you are slowly digested over a thousand years.”

Yikes. Jyn thought as the two men exchanged a remark and the younger man turned to Jabba with stormy blue eyes.

“You should have bargained, Jabba. That's the last mistake you'll ever make.” The young man said and the alien rasped a laugh that sounded like air escaping a balloon. The court around them tittered as well as the men were dragged away along with the wookie.

The empty goblet was thrown Jyn’s way and she scrambled to catch it before it shattered on the floor and hurried to refill it. Something pinched her bottom as she passed and she yelped, her cheeks burning as laughter ensued.

“That ass looks much better in your normal clothes.” Linux stood back, perusing her body with his eyes as he rubbed his chin.

Jyn ignored him and refilled Jabba’s goblet and began making her way back towards the pedestal but a foot came out and tripped her, spilling the goblets contents down the front of her dress.

Jyn gritted her teeth as Linux came forwards, his breath smelling of alcohol. “Just wait until after the execution lovely. Then you are all mine.”

Jyn moved closer, pressing a hand to his chest and smiling cheerfully, showing all of her teeth. “I will kill you Linux. Just you wait.”

She then clumsily refilled the goblet and skirted around his group, back to the pedestal. Leia was gazing off out of the window and Jyn followed her line of sight to the skiff that flew near the ship with the prisoners. She could tell Leia was close with those men and wished she could tell the other woman that things would be okay. But just as she thought those words the chain around Leia’s neck was pulled taut, cutting off her air.

Jabba said something in his language before releasing her and snatching the goblet off of Jyn’s platter and greedily drinking from it.

The ship pulled to a stop. They had made it to the pit. The platform was moved to the edge of the ship so that Jabba could have a front seat view and Jyn watched as the skiff with the prisoners moved to the center of the pit which was lined with what looked like teeth.

The gold droid was again translating the alien’s words but Jyn was hardly listening. In her mind the window of escape was beginning to shut and the panic that they might not make it out alive was beginning to dawn on her. Where was Cassian?

“Free us or die.” The young man said again, arrogantly. Jyn was impressed with his bravado but the situation was impossible and Jabba’s raspy laughter confirmed that for her. Luke is pushed to the edge of the plank and he turns, giving a saucy salute to the watching crowd before jumping.

Jyn’s heart plummets for a moment before she sees him flipping through the air like some kind of monkey. Suddenly something shiny is flying through the air which Luke deftly catches and is suddenly fighting with the guards on board.

Jyn’s brain was still trying to process it as the ship erupts into chaos and Jabba begins barking orders at his guards. Jyn watched as the guards manned guns and began shooting at the skiff.

The sound of choking brought Jyn’s attention back to the ship and she turned to see Leia choking Jabba with the very chain that he had put around her neck. The raspy gurgle as the alien fought back against her made Jyn’s stomach flop. But Leia, who was too focused on killing her captor, didn’t notice the man who was running towards her.

Jyn stepped behind him and raised the heavy gold platter and slammed it into his skull, shuddering at the meaty sound that it made upon contact.

She turned to Leia who was on her knees gasping from the exertion of choking the massive crime lord.

“Are you alright?” Jyn asked, dropping to her knees in front of the other woman and began feeling for a catch in the collar but finding none.

“I will be more fine once I get this damned thing off.” Leia said as she tugged against the chains in vain.

The sound of pounding feet alerted Jyn to the fact that they were no longer alone. She turned brandishing the tray and swinging it at them in warning.

“Leia I’m going to need a gun.” She said over her shoulder.

“All this guy has is a knife.”

The men in front of them were chuckling as they inched closer but then one of them yelped and turned around. A little blue droid zipped into the room.

“Artoo!” Leia said, relief flooding her voice.

The droid zipped towards Leia, followed by the remaining man. Jyn swung the platter at him, hitting him in the shoulder.

He grabbed her with a grin and Jyn fought against him, wishing she had full range of movement but the shackles around her wrists and ankles were making it hard to fight back. She elbowed him in the stomach and rolled away from him. He loomed over her with an expression that sent shudders down his spine.

But that only lasted for a moment because his face slackened and he dropped to the ground in front of her, a knife in his back and a newly freed Leia standing there with a grim expression.

“Artoo, get her chains too.”

The droid made short work of freeing her arms and legs and she stretched her arms.

“Come on, let's get out of here and fast.” Leia said and they hurried away from the room, Jyn stopping to grab the blaster that was on one of the men.

They hurried down the hall, Jyn moving first and firing at anyone that came near them.

“Not my eyes! Artoo, help! Quickly, Artoo. Oh! Ohhh! You beast!” The voice belonged to the droid who had been translating for Jabba as a reptilian alien plucked at the droid.

Artoo zapped the alien, sending him flying with a howl. Leia and Jyn push the gold droid to his feet.

“How are we ever going to get off of this ship?” Jyn asked.

“Luke will have a plan.” Leia said confidently before adding “I hope.”

“You hope? I need a little more than hope.” Jyn complained as they hurried towards the deck of the ship.

“Oh come on now, didn’t you know that rebellions were built on hope?” The woman said with a mysterious grin before turning and heading up the stairs that led up to the deck.

Something expanded in Jyn’s chest, was it the bravery that she’d felt before the battle on Scarif? She didn’t know but hoped that this time she lived to find out.


	16. Chapter 16

**16**

**au·ro·ra**

_the dawn._

The sun beat down on Jyn’s back as they fought their way a crossed the deck of the ship. Jabba’s goons scurried around the deck, shooting at them. Jyn tugged Leia behind a metal barrel that wouldn’t hold up very long to the constant blaster fire and shot blindly, grinning as she heard yelps from the guards when she hit them.

“We need to get you a gun.” She said as blaster shots zoomed over their heads.

Leia nodded once, deep in thought before sitting up “Cover me.”

Before Jyn could agree or disagree Leia had already left their protective barrier.

“She’s crazy. I’m fighting with a crazy person.” Jyn muttered as she followed, shooting anyone who tried to get into Leia’s way. Using the chain that still hung loosely around her neck Leia swung it and struck one of the bigger guards in the face and sent him sprawling to the ground, whether he was dead or just unconscious Jyn couldn’t tell.

Leia held up the large blaster in her hands with a triumphant grin and they continued on towards the edge of the deck to get a look at the skiff.

“Where is Luke?” Leia asked and her question was soon answered by the commotion from the other side of the deck.

There Luke was, fighting off the hoard of guards as if it was the easiest thing he’d done all week.

“Get to the gun!” He yelled at Leia, pointing with his free hand “Point it at the deck.”

Leia turns to Jyn: “Co--”

“I know, I know cover you. Don’t try anything crazy.” But Leia’s slow grin told Jyn that she was going to do just that.

Cursing under her breath Jyn wheeled around and began firing into the crowd of guards.

She winced when she accidentally hit the Luke’s metal hand with a stray blast. “Sorry!” She called sheepishly as he turned to glare at her.

“Who are you again?” He asked as he parried another blast with his lightsaber.

“J--uh Lyra.” Jyn called back.

“We were cell mates.” Leia filled in the blank for Jyn as she was wheeling the gun into position.

“I see.” Luke said as he sliced through one guard and then the other. “Well, nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, same, but can we please maybe focus on the task at hand?”

“What? Oh yeah sure.” He said as he finished off the last of the guards before hurrying over to them.

“How are we going to do this?” Leia asked.

Luke grabbed a rigging rope.

“You take her first.” Jyn said, “Then swing the rope back towards me.”

“Do you know how to fire this gun?” Luke asked incredulously.

“Uh. Yeah piece of cake.” Jyn replied, sounding more confident than she felt. “Now go.”

Luke gathered Leia in one arm and then swung a crossed the pit before landing deftly on the skiff. He tried swinging the rope back towards her but to all of their dismay the rope crumbled and fell into the pit.

Leia turned to Luke and began arguing with him pointing at her.

“I got this!” She called, despite the fact that she definitely did not have it, and held up two shaking thumbs. Leia was yelling something at her but it was too late and something hit her in the back and sent her sprawling to the ground.

Linux stood over her, covered head to toe with sweat, soot and blood--presumably someone else’s.

Jyn glared as him and rolled out of the way and towards the gun. “I told you I would kill you.” She said as she stood next to the gun.

“You wouldn’t--you’d die too.” Linux took a menacing step towards her.

“But at least I’ll take you with me.” Jyn said, sounding more brave than she felt as she kicked the trigger for the gun.

Then the world around her exploded, sending her flying through the air. Jyn’s last thought before blackness took her was ‘I’m sorry Cassian.’

* * *

Pain. That was the first thing she felt as she came back into consciousness.

“Ouch.” Was all she could say, her skin felt as if it had been rubbed raw with sandpaper and her mouth was dry.

“Ouch is right.” a voice said and she turned and opened her eyes which felt as if they were glued together. Leia was hovering above her like a mother hen, concern lining her face “Your face is going to be so bruised.”

“How?” Jyn asked, struggling to sit up. They were sitting in the middle of the desert, the skiff looked as if it had crashed about a hundred feet away. Han, Luke, the droids and the wookie all stood off to the side and looked as if they didn’t know what to do.

“The blast threw you towards us and Luke did the rest.” Leia said “I thought you were a goner for sure.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” Jyn groaned as she felt how sore her body was.

“I hate to break this up,” Han said stepping forward “But you see that dark mass in the distance? That is a sand storm and we need to be ahead of it.”

“Can you walk?” Luke asked.

“I think so.” Jyn said but Leia helped her to her feet and let her lean against her anyways.

They weren’t ahead of the storm for very long and soon sand whipped past them stinging Jyn’s face and filling her mouth. Leia looked even more uncomfortable--still in her slave outfit--and winced as the wind brushed past her. Han quickly covered her shoulders with his leather jacket and she shot him a grateful smile.

They stumbled blindly through the sand, not sure which direction they were heading.

“I can’t see anything.” Jyn yelled over the roar.

“I don’t know I see a lot of blowing sand.” Han quipped.

“Thats all any of us can see!” Leia said back.

“How do we know where we are going?” Luke asked as he pushed forward.

“We don’t!” Han replied cheerfully and was rewarded with a groan from Chewie.

Suddenly the sound of an approaching ship could be heard through the roar of sand.

“That could be Jabba’s men coming to finish us off!” Luke yelled “We should take cover!”

“And where, might I ask, would we do that?” Leia shouted over the noise.

“No… wait” Jyn said, the sound of the ship was familiar and she squinted to try to see the shape of the ship as it came closer. “I know that ship.”

She began to wave her arms wildly, hurrying ahead of the group who were yelling after her.

The ship landed with an inelegant thud and the door opened and a figure emerged, her companions surrounded her ready to fight whoever it was that was coming out.

“Get in!” A familiar voice said and Jyn crowed with joy as she pushed past Han and Luke and fought her way through the sand and threw herself through the ship’s door and into Cassian’s arms.

He swung her around in the air, sending the sand that clung to her body everywhere. He gestured for everyone to get in, despite their looks of confusion, and shut the door--shutting out the roar of the sand and replacing it with a blissful silence.

“How did you find me?” Jyn asked her voice thick with emotion.

“I don’t know, I was at Jabba’s palace and I could tell you weren’t there anymore and then suddenly I knew exactly where you were.” He said as he brushed sand from her face and frowned at the bloody scabs and soot “What happened to you?”

“Explosion.” She said with a shrug and at his look she patted his hand “It was a little one, much smaller than the last one.”

“The last one?” She heard Han whisper to someone.

Jyn sat on the bed while Cassian washed the sand from her face and hands and cleaned her cuts, speaking to the group.

“Thank you for helping get her out of there. I was on my way but that probably wouldn’t have been fast enough.”

“Hey I had a plan.” She looked at Leia “Well we had a plan.”

They exchanged vicious grins, full of false bravado because they hadn’t exactly worked out the ‘plan’ part of their plan. But still.

“Uh-huh.” Cassian said as he pressed rubbing alcohol to her face, causing her to hiss with pain.

“So when can we get back to our ship?” Han asked from his place next to the rest of his group.

“As soon as the sandstorm subsides more, it was enough of a risk even entering the storm with this ship.” Cassian replied as he finished bandaging Jyn up.

“You are correct in that assumption.” The gold droid, who Jyn had learned was named c3po or Threepio for short, piped up “This ship is older than myself and Artoo put together. It’s amazing that you can get it to fly in the first place.”

Cassian shrugged as he tossed the health kit to Han. “We’ll give it an hour or two and then I assume you have the coordinates of your ship?”

“Of course.” Han said with a frown. Jyn rolled her eyes it looked like the two men wouldn’t be getting a long anytime soon.

“So…” she said standing and ignoring the dizziness that made the world spin “Cards anyone?”


	17. Chapter 17

**18**

**de·noue·ment**

_the climax of a chain of events, usually when something is decided or made clear._

“I win again.” Luke tossed his cards down with a grin and Leia groaned, tossing her own cards down in frustration.

“Another round.” She demanded and Luke obliged.

Han had fallen asleep for a quick nap on the bed and was lightly snoring, the droids were standing quietly in the corner arguing with one another and Threepio could be heard scolding the smaller droid about pushing him off of the barge earlier.

“I’ll pass on this one.” Jyn said, standing and handed her cards to Luke to reshuffle before heading towards the cockpit where Cassian had been sitting silently for the past hour and a half.

“Credit for your thoughts.” She said as she slid into the co-pilot seat of the ship.

“I wanted to save you, as silly as that sounds.” He said quietly, his brown eyes never leaving the sand filled window “I let you get caught and because of that I wanted to be the one to save you.”

“I mean you did save me, you found me in this sandy hell. We would have wandered around for ages and quite frankly I don’t enjoy the taste of sand.” She reached out to slide her hand into his and squeezed.

He finally looked over at her, his dark eyes dull with pain, “You were just gone and Lyssa was half dead when I found her--I thought that they had done the same to you.”

“Lyssa is alive?” Jyn asked, hope filling her voice. She had been sure that the other woman had been murdered when she’d been taken.

“Yes, barely.” He replied and watched Jyn wilt with relief “She sold you out to Linux and you still feel for her.”

“Of course I do,” Jyn said surprised at his reaction “She didn’t exactly have a choice in the matter.”

“We always have choices and her choice affected someone else’s life--it affected your life.”

Jyn sighed “Well it’s my choice to forgive her and so should you. Because I’m okay, I really am.” Jyn’s voice wobbled towards the end of her sentence and with a sigh Cassian tugged her from her seat and into his own as she cried quietly, wiping away her tears until she had finished.

They stayed like that for fifteen more minutes until the sound of someone clearing their throat brought them back to reality. Luke stood in the door to the cockpit, looking intensely uncomfortable “I hate to break this up, but I think that the sand storm has finally stopped.”

Jyn blushed and slid off of Cassian’s seat and back into her own.

“Right.” Cassian said, turning away to hide his own embarrassment.

“Right.” Luke said and stood there for a moment awkwardly “Right.” He said again before turning away and heading back into the back half of the ship.

Jyn held back a silly giggle, she really must have been in shock because she found the entire situation entirely too funny.

* * *

They landed on the outskirts of Mos Espa where the group’s three ships were and their group disembarked from Cassian’s ship and stood together chatting.

“You should go with us. Leave that crate behind.” Han was saying to Luke. Luke and Leia embraced and he turned to Han and told him that he had made a promise to some people that he intended to keep.

Leia turned to Jyn, “You should come with us too, the alliance could use people like you.”

Jyn and Cassian looked at one another before turning back to the rest of the group “I think that we’ve done enough fighting for a lifetime, thank you though. I’m sure you guys have it handled.”

Leia frowned but Han touched her shoulder to let her know that they had to leave soon.

“In a minute.” She said and dragged Jyn into a hug “I’ll never forget you, Jyn Erso. Thank you.”

Jyn gaped at her as she pulled away with a smile and put a finger to her lips as if to say: your secret is safe with me. Jyn didn’t know how the other woman had figured it out but warmth filled her, almost telling her that everything would be alright even if the other woman did know.

Jyn and Cassian stood next to one another as they watched the ships leave the atmosphere of Tatooine.

“Do you think we should have gone to help them?” Cassian asked, turning to look at her.

“No.” Jyn said, sliding her hand once more into his. “I think that they can save the galaxy all on their own. They just needed a little help to get off of this awful planet.”

“Do you think that was what the Force wanted us to do?” He asked as they walked hand in hand back through the gates of Mos Espa.

“I think the Force wants us to live our lives,” Jyn felt a little tingle in her body as if the Force was agreeing with her “And you know what? I’m tired of pussy-footing around what we have going on between us.”

Cassian blinked at her in surprise but he gave her a slow smile “And what would that be Jyn Erso?”

“That I love you.” She replied frankly, her face coloring a little bit at the words. Her heart hammered in her chest but nevertheless she continued on.

“It doesn’t make sense and I don’t think it’s supposed to. But we have been through death and even more together and I can’t think of anyone that I would rather spend this second life with and I know it sounds crazy because we absolutely hated each other at first and---” Her nervous babbling was cut off by Cassian pressing his lips to hers.

Jyn relaxed into the kiss, her fingers curling at the nape of his neck as her knees turned to jelly and he nearly had to hold her upright.

“I love you too.” He murmured against her lips and Jyn thought she would faint again, except she hadn’t been in an actual explosion this time.

As Cassian pressed his lips to hers again under the hot Tatooine sun Jyn could almost hear Chirrut’s voice echoing in the vast sandy expanse: “I am one with the force, the force is one with me.” Followed by the sound of people laughing and somehow Jyn knew that all of their friends were together at last.


	18. Chapter 18

**18**

**ep·i·logue**

_a final or concluding act or event._

“Are you sure you need to leave so soon?” Lyssa asked, over the past two weeks she had healed exponentially and the only proof that she had been beaten to near death were the patchwork of bruises all over her body and a broken leg which was now casted.

She had taken over Jyn’s duties as soon as she was able to sit up, upon Jyn’s insistence that she needed a better job.

“It’s about time.” Jyn soothed as she finished packing her suitcase. She and Cassian wanted to get off of Tatooine as soon as possible, “I need for you to stay away from those ‘traders’ as much as possible. Hopefully the new lord will abolish slavery on this planet all together--but I wouldn’t hold my breath.”

Lyssa nodded morosely from her place on the bed that would soon be hers, she was still wracked with guilt over what she had done but Jyn had assured her that she was not angry with her.

“Will you ever come back?” Lyssa asked hopefully.

“No…” Jyn replied slowly, not wanting to hurt her feelings but also having no desire to return to the sandbox from hell “But once Cassian and I find which planet we want to settle on I’ll send a message and you and Cyrus can come visit us, how about that?”

Lyssa seemed pleased with their answer as they headed back into the main room, Jyn with suitcase in hand. Cassian was there with Cyrus and Cyrus was handing some discs over to him.

“What are those?” Lyssa asked as she settled at the table and began to get back to work sorting through the discs.

“Something that belongs to these two,” Cyrus lied easily “I told them to archive it on whatever planet they land on since it has no place on Tatooine.”

Lyssa shrugged, only half listening as she carefully wrote down the numbers of the disc in her hand.

Jyn shared a quick smile with Cassian as he tucked the discs away in his bag.

Last hugs were given and promises of visits were said and soon Jyn found herself alone with Cassian in the ship in the middle of space.

“So,” Cassian turned to her “Where to?”

* * *

Two Weeks Later…

They had finally picked a planet it was closer to the center of the galaxy and it was a small green planet by the name of Antivas I. Jyn had never been to it before but Cassian had on on a mission and had told her stories about the forested planet as they made their way to it.

“It’s not a heavily populated planet, but there are a few cities. I was on a mission when I was twenty years old and had only been flying for a few years. We landed in the biggest city on the planet: Batras.”

Cassian continued on to describe how the whole planet was connected by series of waterways full of crystal clear water. Where there wasn’t water there was thickly dense trees and mossy ground. The city of Batras was made of some kind of green stone and blended it with the rest of the forest. At lights lanterns would light and make the whole place sparkle. Cassian told her that it was one of the most peaceful places that he had ever been.

Now as they landed in the Batras Shipyard, Jyn was nearly pressing her face to the windows to get a better look at the planet.

It was lush and upon exiting the ship it was pleasantly warm, the air smelled of rain and the tell tale drops of water on the leaves told her that it had indeed rained recently.

Cassian paid their docking fees for a week until they decided to stay and find a place to live or leave.

“Do you like it?” Cassian asked as they wandered up and down the docks, watching boats with passengers pass by.

“I think so but what would we do to make a life here?” Jyn asked with a frown, she hadn’t thought of the logistics of building a life together…

“I can fly--I’ll be off world sometimes but it pays good money.” Cassian said confidently as he slid his hand into hers.

“I’m surprised that this planet isn’t under imperial control.” She remarked as they looked into various shops.

“It is.” Cassian said, as if he was just realizing that he didn’t see any imperial soldiers anywhere. “Last time I was here the place was crawling with them.”

A passerby seemed to overhear their conversation and turned to look at them full in the face with a massive grin “Don’t you know?” He asked.

“Know what?”

“The empire has been overthrown.”

“How?” Jyn felt as if the air had whooshed out of her body. Could it be true?

“I don’t know--something finally gave the rebel alliance enough gumption to finally get the job done. We pushed the imperial soldiers out the day after the new broke. One of the fastest planets to do so.” The man said with pride before waving at them and continuing on his way as if he hadn’t told them some of the biggest news in the galaxy.

Jyn stood frozen next to Cassian, her face contorted “It’s… over?” She gasped before turning to search his face only to find tears pouring down his cheeks. She wiped at his cheeks, ignoring the tears that filled her own eyes.

They stood there holding one another for what seemed like forever; because for the first time in their lifetimes they were free.

* * *

Months passed from that point, almost in a blur, Cassian got a job as a pilot with a local shipping company and was gone two or three days out of the week off world making deliveries of fruit and other local items to other planets.

Jyn had gotten a job with the local doctor who was a kind alien by the name of Kamesh; she just scheduled patients and brought them back to be seen. It wasn’t exactly the most exciting job but it paid the bills and the shifts were flexible.

They’d rented a tiny little cottage on the outskirts of the city, close to the forest. It was extremely simple, a bed sat off to one side of the room and a sofa sat in front of the foot of the best. A battered old shelf was one one of the walls filled with little knicknacks and their clothing. A table with two chairs sat on the other side of the apartment next to the tiny kitchen. It was small and simple, but it was theirs.

Years later Cassian and Jyn would eventually buy that cottage once they were joined by their oldest daughter Lyra. More children came, Rafe, Eliza and Monty. The two led a quiet life until they were old any gray, surrounded by their friends and family.

And on the night that the Force took them they went together--as they did with everything in life--and were buried together.

Their tombstone read:  
 _“Jyn and Cassian / One **With the Force**.”_


End file.
